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LIFE OF TALBOT 



THE LIFE 



OF 



SILAS TALBOT 



COMMODORE 

IN THE 

NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES, 

BY 

HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. 



NEW-YORK: 
I C. RIKER, 129 FULTON-STREET. 

1850. 



ETgoT 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 

H. T. TUCKERMAN, 

in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. 



John F. Trow, Printer, 
49 Ann-st., N. Y. 



PREFACE 



The following memoir was intended for the 
series of American Biography edited by- 
President Sparks. Owing to the suspension 
of that valuable work, and at the suggestion 
of its accomplished editor, the present sketch 
appears in a separate volume. In preparing 
it, I have been actuated by a desire to ren- 
der justice to a highly efficient and patriotic 
American officer, and, at the same time, to 
preserve some of the incidents and corre- 
spondence which belong to that period of 
our country's annals, to which the flight of 
time only adds new significance and interest. 
There has been manifest, until within a few 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 



years, a singular indifference to the histori- 
cal and biographical details of our revolu- 
tionary era ; and an absence of that cordial 
recognition of individual merit in some of 
the chief actors of that great drama, which 
confirm, not only the proverbial charge of 
ingratitude against republics, but justify De 
Tocqueville's theory with regard to their 
exclusive devotion to the immediate, and 
their peculiar insensibility to the lessons of 
the past. The difficulty experienced in ob- 
taining many of the facts in this brief and 
imperfect sketch, as well as the original 
documents requisite to authenticate them, 
is sufficient evidence of the forgetfulness and 
neglect to which the records of American 
public characters are liable. 

In view of the sacrifices and inadequate 
reward which usually attend patriotic ambi- 
tion, the least we can do, is to render literary 



PREFACE. Vll 

justice to the memories of our departed he- 
roes, to chronicle their deeds for the emula- 
tion and gratitude of posterity, and keep 
bright the escutcheon upon which their 
names are inscribed. It is gratifying to ob- 
serve that, through the labors of Historical 
Societies and individuals, this high duty seems 
destined to be gradually fulfilled among our- 
selves. As the great questions which now 
agitate the world, — the struggle between 
Power and Right, — practically develope, the 
history of the men who took an active part 
in the achievement of our independence, 
becomes more important and suggestive ; 
and, if this memoir tends to revive one of 
those noble examples of consistent and de- 
voted heroism, it will not appear in vain. 
New-York, August, 1850. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

Characteristics of the American Revolution. Ances- 
try ;— that of Silas Tall)ot— His Birth— Early Edu- 
cation — first voyage — marriage — speculations- Pre- 
parations of the colony for war — Mr. Talbot appoint- 
ed Captain — ^joins the army — assists the squadron — 
arrival in New-York — aspect of the harbor — takes 
command of a fire-ship — attacks the British man-of- 
war Asia on the Hudson — narrow escape — great 
sufferings — promoted to rank of Major — assists in 
the defence on the Delaware — is wounded — inter- 
view with Washington — leave of absence. 

pp. 9—32. 

CHAPTER II. 

Hostilities in Rhode Island. Sketch of Newport. Ge- 
neral SuUivan's preparations to attack the Enemy. 



CONTENTS. 

Major Talbot's efficiency at this crisis. Approach 
of the British fleet. The Battle of Rhode Island „ 
Skilful retreat of the Americans. Major Talbot 
and the light corps. His services again acknowl- 

pp. 33—51. 



CHAPTER III. 

Capture of H. B. M. schooner Pigot by Major Talbot ; 
promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Vote 
of thanks by Congress ; and other honors awarded 
him pp. 52 — 64. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Two new expeditions against the Enemy frustrated. 
Sacrifice of professional claims. Letter of Lafay- 
ette. Historical significance of Col. Talbot's com- 
missions ; appointed a Captain in the Navy. Equips 
the Argo. Description of this craft. Sails under 
orders from General Gates. Drives the Enemy from 
the coast. Captures the Lively, two letter-of- 
marque brigs, and the King George. Fame of the 
Argo — Capture of the Dragon — Letter from General 
Gates. Effect of Captain Talbot's successful cruises 
^Certificate of GenereJ Gates,, pp. 65'-~-8'I. 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER V. 

Endurance as well as active courage needful to the 
hero. The Argo reclaimed by her owners. Cap- 
tain Talbot takes command of the Washington — 
encounters British fleet — captured by the Cullo- 
den — brutal treatment — is put on board Jersey pri- 
son-ship ; Cruelty of his guards — transferred to 
prison on shore — thence to the Yarmouth — terri* 
ble winter voyage — attempted escapes from Dart- 
moor prison ; his liberation ; letter from John Jay 
— arrival at Cherbourg — embarks for America — > 
recaptured — liberated — arrives at New-York — ■jour-' 
ney home — letter from General Washington. 

pp. 88—106." 

CHAPTER VL 

Removes from Providence to the State of New-York — 
Reasons for this change — His second marriage — 
Life at Johnstown — Elected to Congress — Letter 
to Theodore Foster — Selected as Commander on 
the reorganization of the Navy — Interest in naval 
architecture — Letter from James Monroe — Ap- 
pointed Commodore of the West India squadron — 
Bold capture of a French letter-of-marque brig^-^ 
Letter of Toussaint L'Ouverture, pp. 107 — 125. 



Xli CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Question of rank. Letter from John Adams. Reply 
of Commodore Talbot — His resignation and its 
causes. His. appearance, character and death. 

pp. 126—137. 



LIFE OP TALBOT. 



CHAPTER I. 

One great cause of the triumph of our Revo- 
lution, was the mutual confidence that pre- 
vailed among its friends ; another, still less 
recognized, was individual disinterestedness. 
Not in the biographies of a few signal ac- 
tors, or in the results of two or three battles, 
can we discover the real means of success ; 
but in the allied and consistent energy of 
those who, separated by a vast extent of 
country, were yet side by side and heart 
with heart in allegiance to her cause. As 
the greatest forces of Nature are latent, 
2 



10 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

and only surmised by their partial develop- 
ment, so moral agencies often work unseen, 
and accumulate with the silent but intense 
growth of the oak and the avalanche. If^ 
we compare the American with the Con- 
tinental revolutions of the last two years, 
we cannot but perceive that the repeated 
failures of the latter are often traceable to 
selfishness and the absence of intelligent 
unanimity. In accordance with that great 
principle of compensation, now so generally 
recognized, it would seem that in public 
affairs not less than in personal achievement, 
self-sacrifice is essential to eminent results. 
One reason that the American war furnishes 
so ineffective a subject for the epic poet, is 
that its most impressive and significant 
phases are to be found in its episodes ; — in 
the countless instances of modest valor, 
cheerful privation, and secret martyrdom. 
The domestic correspondence, and the 
household traditions of the people, yield more 
dramatic hints of that eventful struggle than 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 11 

the annals of the historian. The "pomp 
and circumstance " of war were so abridged 
by the limited resources and simple habits 
of the colonists, that its glories were almost 
exclusively revealed by feats of personal 
daring and quiet endurance. 

It is often thought derogatory to the spirit 
of republicanism, to manifest any faith or 
interest in genealogy; but this prejudice 
arises from the evils associated with the 
idea of fixed rank, and the absurd ostenta- 
tion displayed in heraldic devices. Natural 
aristocracy has become recognized as a 
great fact in human society — a law of race, 
and an ordination of the Creator. It is, 
therefore, not only deemed justifiable as a 
merely curious question, but highly interest- 
ing and important as an element in the phi- 
losophy of character, to trace mental and 
physical distinctions to their ancestral ori- 
gin. Indeed, one of the most inviting as- 
pects of this subject is opened by the social 
life of this country ; for to a philosophic 



12 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

mind it is a most attractive study to inves- 
tigate the effect of a pioneer life, a new form 
of government and development of the reli- 
gious sentiment, upon the original emigrants 
from Europe to America ; and then realize 
the modification of taste, habit and charac- 
ter, thus induced upon succeeding genera- 
tions. The climate, theology, and occupa- 
tions of New England, essentially changed 
the nature of the children of the pilgrims ; 
yet, here and there, especially during the 
Revolution^ the fanriily instincts of indivi- 
duals, recorded by the historian of their pro- 
genitors, reappears in striking contrast with 
their wholly diverse condition and habits. 

Captain Talbot came honestly by his 
adventurous impulse and resolved courage. 
He w^as a lineal descendant of that Richard 
de Talbot who witnessed the grant that 
Walter Gifford, Earl of Buckingham, made 
to the monks of Cerasie, in the reign of 
William the Conqueror. His Norman 
blood asserted itself in a thirst for honorable 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 13 

activity, in the zeal with which he dedi- 
cated himself to the crusade for freedom, 
and the quickness of thought and deed that 
signalized his enterprises. Not less ob- 
viously was his military aptitude an inher- 
ited quahty. The Earldom of Shrewsbury 
was bestowed, in the fifteenth century, upon 
John Talbot, for his prowess and skill in 
war. It is remarkable that one of his an- 
cestors was the antagonist of the Maid of 
Orleans, and another had the custody of 
Mary Queen of Scots. The line, although 
illustrious in English history, presents the 
usual mingled chronicle of shame and glory 
that belongs to the authentic record of an 
unbroken and venerable lineage. Thus 
Geoffrey Talbot was banished by King Ste- 
phen for cruelty in his military exploits on 
behalf of Maud; while Hugh Talbot is re- 
nowned as a benefactor to the monks of 
Beaubeck, with whom he eventually took 
orders. Macaulay, in two of his striking- 
portraits, gives us the most opposite char- 
2* 



14 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

acters in members of this race : — Richard 
Talbot, lord lieutenant of Ireland, under 
James the Second, is described as one of 
the most infamous public men of bis day ; 
and Charles, lord-Heutenant of Staffordshire, 
and colonel of one of the regiments of horse 
raised during the Western Insurrection, is 
portrayed as a singularly accomplished and 
winsome gentleman. The inscription on a 
monument to another of the family, at Shef- 
field, declares of him, that " though noble by 
descent he was more noble and illustrious 
in his actions ; famous at home and abroad, 
loyal to his prince, and true to his countryY' 
and that he " resigned his soul in a good old 
age/' 

It is evident that the chivalric element, 
though sometimes overlaid by cruelty and 
craft, was innate in the blood ; it came from 
the Norman knights ; while the less elevated 
instincts perhaps are of Celtic origin ; at 
least, such appears to be the inference of a 
keen and well-informed annalist. 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 15 

Like his renowned ancestor, Captain Tal- 
bot was eminently " true to his country." 
It was justly recorded of him by a distin- 
guished contemporary, that " America had 
not a more active friend. Alternately in 
the army and the navy, as his country called 
for his services, through the whole war, he 
devoted himself to her cause." 

Large families and early self-dependence 
were characteristic of colonial life. Educa- 
tion was the great, if not the only duty 
incumbent on a parent, except that of pro- 
viding for the material comfort of infancy. 
So certain and available were the means of 
subsistence, if either physical strength or 
mental aptitude existed ; — so far removed 
even from the imagination of the thriving 
settlers, was the problem of the inadequacy 
of labor that now agitates civiHzed society, 
— that a child with a good constitution and 
the rudiments of learning, was thought 
quite prepared for the exigencies of life. 
To insure this equipment was, however, a 



16 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

vital interest ; and accordingly, when the 
father of Silas Talbot found himself about 
to leave his children orphans, he made the 
elder guardians of the younger, and devoted 
his small property to the- support of the 
latter. The subject of this sketch w^as the 
ninth of fourteen children, and but twelve 
years of age, when deprived of his only 
surviving parent, who had lived as an 
honest, thrifty and contented farmer, for 
several years, at the town of Dighton, 
Bristol county, then part of the colony of 
Massachusetts bay. The spirit of adventure 
lurked in the or[)han's blood; and he had no 
sooner learned to write, than he began to 
look about for the readiest means to oive it 
exercise. At that period the southern coast- 
ing trade yielded to New England a profit 
that naturally enlisted her enterprise ; and 
in order to master the profession of a 
mariner, as well as to gratify his youthful 
curiosity, and love of action, he entered 
himself as cabin-boy on board one of the 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 17 

many craft that plied regularly between the 
northern and southern states. Hardy from 
a boyhood passed in rural occupations, 
amid the bracing winds of Rhode Island, — - 
his native intelligence quickened and en- 
larged by observation and reading, — with 
the energetic habits and strength of purpose 
thus fostered, his advancement was not less 
certain than rapid : and accordingly we are 
not surprised to find him at the age of man- 
hood, in the year 1772, married to Miss 
Richmond, of one of the oldest and most 
respected colonial families, and the occupant 
of a dwelling built with his own earnings, 
in Providence, R. I. This property seems 
to have been acquired in the versatile man- 
ner characteristic of the time and people. 
While a lad he had learned the trade of a 
stone-mason — then one of the most lucrative 
mechanical occupations ; this he seems very 
soon to have abandoned for the sea, and 
during the early part of his residence in 
Providence, he engaged occasionally ia 



18 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

mercantile speculations, in which he ex- 
hibited more than ordinary boldness and 
sagacity. An instance is yet remembered 
of his sailing down the river, when lumber 
had unexpectedly risen to a high price, and 
intercepting a vessel thus loaded, purchas- 
ing the cargo, and making sales in town at 
an enormous advance. 

But his was not a spirit to rest content 
with the indolent enjoyment of outward 
prosperity, nor to stifle its aspirations in the 
pride of success, or the relish of accumula- 
tion. The foothold he had gained in the 
w^orld only excited him to nobler toils ; 
emancipation from want only made him 
desirous of glory ; and the comfort and re- 
spectability of a home served but to deepen 
his patriotic sympathies. Scarcely had he 
attained that basis of prosperity and domes- 
tic happiness for which the heart of youth so 
instinctively yearns, than the first shadows 
of war began to appear in the far horizon. 
The most calm and hopeful acknowledged 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 19 

that a resort to arms appeared the only- 
means of safety as well as justice. It was 
felt by all that the most sacred principles of 
civil existence were threatened. Indigna- 
tion was gradually warming into a solemn 
purpose of defence, and the seeds of the 
Revolution had begun to germinate. 

Accordingly, in every nook of the land 
men began to initiate themselves in military 
habitudes. The mechanic, the tradesman, 
the agriculturist, set apart two. or three 
hours from their daily toil to practise the 
drill, acquaint themselves with the minor 
tactics, and become familiar with the form- 
ulas of soldiership. To one who, at this 
distance of time, reflects upon the quiet, 
systematic, yet earnest manner in which 
the poor scattered and undisciplined colon- 
ists thus entered upon their preparations to 
resist a powerful invader, there is almost a 
sublimity in the tranquil confidence and 
resolute spirit manifested, under circum- 
stances that would have palsied in despair 



20 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

the efforts of any but a sturdy, enlightened 
and patriotic race. The humble style of 
these private exercises, compared with the 
greatness of the future result, is remarkable. 
In the instance before us, young Talbot and 
his companions hired the loft of a sugar- 
house in Providence, and repaired thither, 
several evenings in each week, to be drilled 
by a runaway drum-major, an old Scotch- 
man, well-versed in the technicalities of his 
profession, and not indisposed to cultivate 
the martial instinct destined to expend itself 
on his former allies. 

Events soon demonstrated that such 
preliminaries were not an hour in advance 
of the exigencies of the time ; for no sooner 
had the news of the battle of Lexington 
reached Rhode Island, than her legislature 
voted the establishment of three regiments. 
It is a striking evidence of the local reputa- 
tion already gained by the leading spirit of 
the little band of volunteers, that the State 
immediately gave him a commission, dated 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 21 

June 28th, 1775, (with the usual ruse in the ^ 
filling up — " In his majesty's name," &c.,) 
as captain in one of these regiments. They 
marched, without delay, to join the American 
camp, near Boston, and assisted in carrying 
on the siege, with as little expenditure of am- 
munition, however, as possible — one of many 
economies necessity obliged them to practise. 
After our army entered the city, and the 
British had embarked for Halifax, the com- 
mander of the American squadron, just /^ 
arrived at New London, from the Bahama 
islands, applied to General Washington for 
two hundred volunteers to assist in carry- 
ing them to Rhode Island. With the 
characteristic promptitude that eminently 
distinguished him throughout the war, Cap- 
tain Talbot offered his services, and the 
fleet was soon anchored in safety in the 
harbor of Providence. Having performed 
this incidental duty, he accompanied the 
army to New- York. 

The lovely harbor of this now great me- 
3 



22 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

tropolis then offered a scene of rare and 
exciting interest. Riding at anchor in the 
vicinity of Staten Island, appeared the Brit- 
ish fleet, with the army under Lord Howe. 
Every spar and line of cordage in those 
swarming battle-ships, was defined to the 
eye of the distant spectator, against the 
lucid azure of the sky ; and, on quiet nights, 
reflected to the gaze of the boatmen that 
haunted the adjacent shore. Their dark, 
massive hulls and scowling cannon wore a 
portentous aspect, and seemed to cast long 
and prophetic shadows upon the free waters 
into which th'ey had ruthlessly intruded — 
significant of the years of bitter trial of 
which they were ominous harbingers. 

Upon the heights of Brooklyn, at York 
Island, and Paulus Hook, rose the newly- 
heaped batteries of the Americans. Never 
smiled that lovely bay more cheerfully than 
during those clear days of that eventful 
spring. More solitary than at present, 
with its constantly plying steamers and 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 23 

forest of shipping, the position of the bel- 
ligerents was plainly obvious. The com- 
parative silence that hung over the broad 
waters, the fast-skimming clouds that, for a 
moment, darkened their crystal sheen, and 
the occasional furrows raised by sudden 
breezes that swept across them, stimulated 
the imagination of the lonely enthusiast 
who, from some isolated point, looked forth 
and mused upon the landscape. 

It was evident that neither party had, 
as yet, determined upon its course. The 
considerate, on both sides, felt the impor- 
tance of a successful blow, at the existent 
juncture ; yet the actual state of the colo- 
nial defences was but partially known to 
their opponents, and a premature manoeu- 
vre might occasion temporary discomfiture, 
even in that well-appointed squadron. On 
the other hand, it was of the highest mo- 
ment that the Americans should be assured 
of the readiness of our troops to cope with 
their formidable invaders. It was needful 



24 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

that the spell of vague alarm should be, in 
a measure, broken, which had been inspired 
by the presence of those destructive engines, 
whose thunders seemed to gather new po- 
tency from their long quiescence ; whose 
shrouds and decks bristled with pikes and 
bayonets, and whose black and heavy sides 
contrasted vividly with the red hues of the 
soldiers' uniforms, grouped thickly at the 
port-holes and on the taffrails, as if impatient 
to pour forth upon the land so invitingly 
spread below and around. To one gallant 
heart, this inaction was especially irksome. 
Captain Talbot had obtained the command of 
a fire-ship, and lay directly before the city, 
awaiting orders. To secure a more efficient 
position, and the better to disguise his purpose, 
he took advantage of a light wind, ascended 
the Hudson fifteen miles, and anchored just 
above Fort Washington. 

For three days, in this romantic spot, he 
quietly awaited an opportune moment for 
action. On the one side, the banks of the 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 25 

noble river sloped gradually upward, half- 
covered with low cedars, whose dark um- 
brage already wore the freshening tints of 
spring ; on the other, like natural fortifica- 
tions, rose the gray and upright rocks of the 
tufted palisades. Few dwellings were then 
visible ; the ripple of the water on the pebbly 
shore was audible in the lull of the wind, 
and the tranquil and sequestered beauty of 
the scene gave no hint of the deadly prepa- 
rations then making on board the unwarlike 
craft that swung so gently at her moorings. 
The lapse of a few hours after Captain Tal- 
bot had chosen his anchorage, evidenced 
the sagacity of his movements. Three of 
the enemy's ships, in order to protect the 
left of their army, in case of need, had shift- 
ed their ground from the harbor to a spot 
about half way between the mouth of the 
Hudson and the fire-ship. Orders were 
therefore soon forwarded to the latter to 
make a night attack. She was filled with 
combustibles, and besmeared with turpentine. 
3* 



26 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

Several trains of powder were laid ; and one 
of the crew was easily induced to strip him- 
self, and lie down upon deck, with a lighted 
nnatch, ready, at a moment's warning, to 
ignite the vessel. 

At two o'clock in the morning they 
weighed anchor, and dropped slowly down 
with the tide. The nearest of the three 
ships was the Asia of sixty-four guns, whose 
tall spars and towering hull no sooner 
loomed upon the eager gaze of Captain 
Talbot's hardy band, than they steered di- 
rectly for her broadside. Unsuspicious of 
any danger, it was but a moment before her 
little adversary had flung her grappling 
irons, that the Asia fired ; and then a scene 
ensued that baffles description. From the 
depth, as it were, of profound silence, there 
echoed the reverberation of cannon, the 
cries of the wounded, and the piercing shouts 
of alarm and revenge. In an instant the 
darkness of a cloudy night gave place to a 
red flashing glare that revealed the fort, the 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 27 

waters, and the fields, with the distinctness 
of noonday; and brought into vivid relief 
the huge vessels of war now alive with their 
startled crews, who hastened to the relief 
of the Asia; — some pouring water on the 
rising fxames, others disengaging the fire- 
ship from her side, and not a few intent at 
the guns, which hurled an incessant shower 
of balls at the boat in which the daring ori- 
ginator of this sudden conflagration, was 
propelled by his brave men towards the 
nearest shore. Although lighted in their aim 
by a pyramid of fire, of all the shot from the 
three vessels, but two struck the crowded 
bark of fugitives. Captain Talbot, how- 
ever, in his anxiety to render the experiment 
certain, had lingered amid the burning tim- 
bers of the fire-ship, and was the last to 
escape, the seaman who applied the match 
having, according to a previous understand- 
ing, immediately jumped overboard and been 
picked up by his expectant comrades. 
When, therefore, the boat reached the Jer- 



28 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

sey shore in safety, the appearance of the 
gallant leader was frightful and his suffer- 
ings intense. His skin was blistered from 
head to foot, his dress almost entirely con- 
sumed, and his eye-sight gone. 

Sadly, yet with gentle care, his humble 
companions in danger bore him through the 
solitary woods, in the gray, cold twilight of 
morning, to a thin but hospitable settlement 
then called the English Neighborhood ; but, 
on their arrival, his dreadful condition so 
alarmed the children of the place, that no 
house would give him shelter. At last a 
poor and aged widow opened her cabin 
door, and allowed the weary and scorched 
bearers to lay him on the floor, and cover 
his tortured frame with a blanket. Fortu- 
nately, in the course of that day, two Ame- 
rican officers, General Knox and Dr. Eustis, 
passed the vicinity on business ; and hearing 
of the case, hastened to visit their country- 
man. The seasonable medical aid of the 
latter gentleman soon essentially relieved 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 29 

his anguish ; and although for a considerable 
period deprived of vision, he was soon able 
to bear a removal to Hackensack, to await 
his convalescence. Meantime the Asia had 
been extricated, with great difficulty, from 
her perilous situation ; and the bold enter- 
prise that so nearly proved her destruction, 
created such apprehension and loss of con- 
fidence in the enemy, that they slipped their 
cables, fell down the river, and anchored 
below the city. The hopes of the Ameri- 
cans revived in the same proportion as 
those of the British were discouraged. So 
obvious, indeed, was the auspicious influ- 
ence of this event, that by a resolution of 
Congress passed on the tenth of the ensuing 
October, this " spirited attempt," as it was 
designated, of Captain Talbot, was made the 
occasion of a vote of thanks, and a special 
recommendation of that officer to the com- 
mander-in-chief, besides promoting him to 
the rank of Major. 

'' October lOth, 1777. Resolved, That Cap- 



30 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

tain Silas Talbot, of the State of Rhode 
Island, be promoted to the rank and have 
the pay of Major in the Army of the United 
States, in consideration of his merit and 
services in a spirited attempt to set fire to 
one of the enemy's ships of w^ar, in the 
North River, last year ; and that he be re- 
commended to General Washington, for 
employment agreeable to his rank." 

The instant he recovered, with the avid- 
ity of a man thoroughly pledged to an " idea 
dearer than self," he looked around for the 
nearest post of duty. At that time a severe 
and most unequal conflict w^as going on, 
with occasional intermissions, on the Jersey 
side of the Delaware. The names of the 
respective localities thus fiercely disputed, 
were not, indeed, fitted to grace a historical 
romance or poem of chivalry; but the era 
and the occasion were of that grave and 
practical character, in which things assume 
their just superiority to names, and a great 
principle throws into the shade conventional 



LIFE OF TALBOT. SI 

honor. For several days the British having 
intrenched themselves on Hog Island, as- 
sailed with an unremitting fire the Ameri- 
can fort erected on Mud Island. The ship- 
ping also kept up successive volleys, so that 
not a spot gave refuge to the harassed and 
disheartened occupants. Into this " deadly 
breach," Captain Talbot, yet scarred with 
the raging element he so narrowly escaped, 
threw himself with ardor. Hopeless as the 
task appeared, the besieged, under his and a 
brother officer's cheering guidance, held out 
with marvellous fortitude against a cross- 
fire, to which their indifferent resources af- 
forded neither the means of retaliation or 
defence. At length the enemy, impatient at 
such heroic perseverance, taking advantage 
of a flood tide, brought an armed transport 
directly against the fort. The broadside 
discharge of this new ally was more than 
the weary and crippled, though brave garri- 
son, could withstand; and, after Captain 
Talbot (disabled from a wound in the hip, 



32 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

having until that moment fought for hours 
with his wrist shattered by a musket ball) 
had been conveyed to the Fort at Red Bank 
and thence to Princeton hospital, Col. 
Thayer evacuated the island. Gen. Wash- 
ington was then at White Plains, and soon 
became acquainted with the particulars of 
this gallant defence, to which even the Brit- 
ish bore honorable testimony. Accordingly, 
when Captain Talbot was able to seek an 
interview, he was received by the Command- 
er-in-chief with the utmost cordiality, his 
assiduous bravery warmly applauded, and 
leave of absence readily given the wounded 
officer to visit his family at Rhode Island, 
until quite recruited. 



CHAPTER 11. 

On the 8th of December, 1777, a considera- 
ble force of the enemy had taken possession 
of the Island of Rhode Island ; and from that 
period, for three years, the colony were kept 
in a continual state of alarm. With their 
small armed vessels and tenders, the invaders 
made frequent incursions, often guided on 
marauding expeditions in the vicinity by the 
Tories ; and it had been found requisite to 
fortify, at intervals, the entire circuit of 
Narraganset Bay. The inhabitants, v^^ith 
occasional assistance from the continental 
soldiers, maintained a vigilant guard. The 
town of Providence wore the aspect of a 
military rendezvous. The University build- 
ings at first occupied by the artillery 
4 



34 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

troops, subsequently were converted into a 
hospital ; the college grounds were used as 
a parade. All business was suspended, and 
many of the citizens had removed to the in- 
terior of the state. Their absence, howev- 
er, was less apparent, because of the influx 
of fugitives from Newport, to whom it has 
been justly remarked, was then repaid the 
debt of gratitude due their ancestors by the 
townspeople, for similar protection and re- 
fuge affbrded them in the Indian war, a cen- 
tury before. The monotonous din of arms 
and strains of martial music, then so familiar 
to the once quiet and busy town, gave place 
to more lively demonstrations on the twen- 
ty-second of April, when the news of the 
treaty with France arrived. But the scene 
of action was soon changed to Newport, 
and the island it occupies — a locality so at- 
tractive in itself and so intimately associated 
with the subject of this memoir, that I can- 
not refrain from a brief sketch of its his- 
tory. 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 35 

As one there inhales the salubrious air, 
and looks forth upon the majestic sea, it is 
easy to realize how a man of heroic spirit 
may go forth amid such an inspiring experi- 
ence, with the calm resolve to execute gal- 
lant deeds or perish in the attempt. Indeed, 
to judge by the reminiscences of the " oldest 
inhabitant/' which is quite a Methuselah 
problem there — for longevity is peculiar to 
the region — Newport has never failed, in 
the hour of need, to yield her brave cham- 
pions. In the colonial times, there was 
Roger Williams, a man who seems to have 
been the incarnation of moral courage, who, 
unsubdued by the spiritual tyranny of Mas- 
sachusetts, that drove him forth to wander 
through the piercing winds and heavy snows 
of a New England winter, and find in sav- 
age hospitality the refuge denied him by 
countrymen and bigots — without a guide, or 
food, or lodging. Under a grant from the 
chief of the Wampanoags, he began a settle- 
ment at Seekonk, on the east side of the 



36 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

Narraganset river ; but even here the per- 
secuting spirit of his former neighbors pur- 
sued him, and at the suggestion of Winslow, 
then Governor of Plymouth, he removed be- 
yond their jurisdiction, and established an 
independent colony at the head of the bay, 
and named it Providence, in memory, as he 
declared, "of God's merciful providence to 
him." The claim, as ably urged by Mr. 
Hunter, our former Minister at Brazil, in an 
address delivered in this town two years 
ago, which I had the pleasure of hearing, 
that this state henceforth became the only 
one in New England which truly enjoyed 
the blessings of religious freedom, is fully 
confirmed by the evidence of facts. I per- 
ceive that Hildreth, in his lately published 
History of the United States, recognizes 
this noble distinction as justly belonging to 
Rhode Island. The purpose of Roger Wil- 
liams, in his two visits to New England, to 
secure a charter which should protect his 
colony " from the spiritual despotism of her 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 37 

neighbors," appears to have been realized ; 
and on the second of these occasions, Clarke, 
his companion, still honorably represented 
by descendants in Newport, although he 
won the friendship of Clarendon for his 
mission, was obliged to mortgage his house 
there, in order to defray the expenses of their 
visit ; a sacrifice subsequently redeemed by 
the corporation. Massachusetts continued 
to watch the growing little state with a 
jealous eye ; but Williams had taken care 
that the terms of the new charter should be 
explicit — providing emphatically that, " no 
person within the said Colony shall be mo- 
lested, punished, disquieted, or called in 
question, for any difference in matters of 
religious opinion, who did not actually dis- 
turb the civil peace." Indeed, the antago- 
nists of Williams have betrayed in their 
own attempts at self-vindication, the neces- 
sity of these stringent provisions. In an 
old book of Cotton Mather's, he says, " If 
any man has lost his religion, he may find it 
4# 



38 LIFE OF TALBOT. ' 

in this general muster of opinions (referring 
to the R. I. settlements) in this Gerazim of 
New England, the receptacle of the con- 
victs of Jerusalem and outcasts of the land." 
The only instance recorded of intolerance 
in Williams seems to be his joining his old 
enemies against the Quakers, although it 
does not appear that he did this otherwise 
than by fair controversy. His logical com- 
bativeness and zeal may be inferred from 
the well-authenticated fact that, after the 
age of seventy, he rowed, in an open boat, 
from Providence to Newport, a distance of 
thirty miles, to argue the matter with George 
Fox ; which discussion continued for three 
days, without any satisfactory issue. A cu- 
rious illustration of their mutual excitement, 
and of the spirit of those times, is still pre- 
served in the Redwood Library, in the shape 
of a worm-eaten, and black-letter volume, 
entitled '' George Fox digged out of his Bur- 
rows," and the latter's reply, called " A New 
England Firebrand Quenched." Notwith- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 39 

Standing this partial sympathy of opinion, 
the representatives of Rhode Island (so 
named from the Isle of Rhodes) found no 
countenance in their sister colony, for the 
delegation that visited Boston, soon after, 
v^ere fined and whipped by the authorities 
of that town. The old patriots, not content 
with bearing off the palm of colonial free- 
dom, claim also that the first act of popular 
resistance to English oppression that oc- 
curred in the country, was the destruction of 
H. B. M. armed sloop Liberty in Newport 
harbor, in 1769. The Privateers of the town 
won no small renown ; both during the 
French and the Revolutionary wars ; and 
the names of Read, Babcock, and others,, 
are yet eloquent of traditionary valor. The 
former escaped from a prison- ship, having 
been betrayed while in command of a priva- 
teer by a treacherous comrade, returned to 
Newport, fitted out a new craft, pursued and 
captured the traitor, with a speed and a 
promptness rarely equalled in naval annals.. 



40 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

The traces of British invasion are still man- 
4 ifest in the absence of trees cut down during 
the war by soldiers. They also mutilated 
and carried off many of the books in 
the Redwood Library, desecrated all the 
churches but the Episcopal, by converting 
them into stables for their cavalry, destroyed 
the Beaver-tail lighthouse, and the barracks 
at Fort Adams. These offences were not 
wholly unpunished by the inhabitants of 
Aquidnay, as this part of the island was 
called by the Hutchensonian party, who, 
"when exiled from Boston and its vicinity, 
founded Newport. Many of the prizes 
taken by Admiral Wallace, the commander 
of the British fleet, were recaptured ; and 
when Prescott succeeded Clinton and Lord 
Percy in the command of the army quar- 
tered here, by a very bold and skilful strata- 
gem he was kidnapped in his own chamber 
at night, and secretly conveyed within the 
American lines, through all the guards that 
watched over the enemy's forces encamped 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 41 

on Gould and Weaver's Hill. During the 
whole time a correspondence was kept up 
between the island and the main by means 
of the window of Peter Peckham's barn. 
Up to this time Newport rivalled New York 
in commercial enterprise. Her West India 
trade was extensive. Lopez, a Jewish 
merchant, sent thirty vessels on trading 
voyages annually. The war struck a fatal 
blow to the prosperity of the town. Its fine 
harbor rendered it a most desirable port for 
the revenue cutters, and no place was more 
exposed to invasion. It is recorded as a fact 
honorable to our French allies, long quar- 
tered here, that on their departure, one hun- 
dred dollars covered all the loss incident to 
their sojourn, There Lafayette endeavored, 
though unsuccessfully, to co-operate with 
Count D'Estaing, whose fleet, for many 
weeks, manoeuvred off the island, and was 
seriously crippled by a memorable storm 
that compelled him to put to sea. There 
Washington had his first interview, in 



42 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

March, 1781, with Count Rochambeau ; 
the tombstone of one of the French Admi- 
rals is still seen in the old church-yard; 
thence Perry went to gain the battle of Lake 
*:rie. 

It will naturally be asked what traces are 
still discoverable of the past history of New- 
port. In the ancient church is an organ pre- 
sented by Dean Berkely ; and in that of East 
Greenwich, the silver cup used at the com- 
munion service, is said to have belonged to 
him. The old stone tower, which, notwith- 
standing speculations of antiquarians, is 
thought by many to be only a substantial 
mill, commemorates — if not antecedent to 
the foundation of the town— at least, an 
early period in its annals ; the well-kept but 
deserted synagogue attests the wealth of the 
Hebrews who there once prosecuted a flou- 
rishing trade, and whose temple is now pre- 
served by strangers through a testamentary 
provision. Occasionally a pile of bananas 
in Thames street, indicates the fact that two 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 43' 

small vessels yet keep up the once constant 
intercourse between Newport and the West 
Indies. Over her rocky ledges the gallant 
Duncan trained his artillery to the alertness 
and precision which gained more than one 
battle in the Mexican war. A granite obe- 
lisk marks the grave of Perry ; and the little 
Grecian temple, with its small but desira- 
ble collection of books, is a graceful evidence 
of the intelligent taste of the people even in 
1730. 

Many distinguished names are associated 
with Newport. It was the favorite resi- 
dence of Berkeley, Channing, and Allston. 
Stephen Hopkins, too, whose tremulous sig- 
nature is on the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, but whose heart, as one of the patri- 
otic Islanders says, " never trembled," had 
once his home there. It is the native place 
of Arthur Brown, afterwards President of 
Trinity College, Dublin ; of Malbone, the 
miniature painter, and of Slater, one of the 
fathers of American manufactures. Gilbert. 



44 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

Stuart was born in the vicinity; and one of 
his pictures of Washington adorns the State 
House. 

Newport has the most individual cHmate 
in America. It has been thought that the 
vicinity, of the Gulf Stream is one cause of 
the marked difference between the temper- 
ature there and that on our seaboard else- 
where. Its saline humidity is a perfect se- 
dative to the natives, and the fogs are salu- 
brious except in cases of pulmonary disease. 
Fashion, with her characteristic blindness, 
keeps her votaries away from the peculiar 
charms of this region, by immuring them in 
noisy hotels and amid dusty thoroughfares. 
They prefer the sound of a gong to the roar 
of the sea, and a gaudy drawing-room to 
the heavens and the ocean. They leave 
there at the advent of the most glorious sea- 
son, when autumnal skies and a bracing air 
redouble the attractiveness of the place; 
when the sky and climate remind one of 
Italy, as do the capricious flitting of the gay 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 45 

crowds that profane the venerable cities of 
the old world as they do the natural sancti- 
ties of the new. 

When the French fleet, under Count 
d'Estaing, appeared off Rhode Island, to- 
wards the close of July, sanguine hopes 
were naturally excited that the enemy 
would be driven from the State. An expe- 
dition planned to effect this desirable object 
the preceding autumn, while General Spen- 
cer v/as in command, after having been par- 
tially equipped, was abandoned for reasons 
that have never been satisfactorily ex- 
plained. A second attempt was now de- 
cided on by General Sullivan, who, on the 
ninth of August, left Providence and as- 
sumed command at Tiverton. The Council 
of War ordered out the whole military force 
of the State for twenty days. The French 
fleet had an encounter with the British, 
under Lord Howe, off Point Judith, and 
did not return to the assistance of the 
Americans until the twentieth of the same 
5 



46 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

month. A violent storm (yet traditional at 
Newport, from the circumstances that the 
windows of the town were incrusted with 
salt, deposited by the sea- water borne inland 
by the tempest), separated the fleets, and 
neither gained any obvious advantage. 
Meantime, it became necessary for our 
army to cross over to the island where the 
enemy were stationed. At this crisis Gene- 
ral Sullivan availed himself of the energetic 
aid of Captain Talbot, to collect and prepare 
in as brief a time as possible, a sufficient 
number of boats to insure the safe and rapid 
debarkation of the troops. Invigorated by 
the respite from toil and suffering he had 
enjoyed, and his patriotic sentiments revived 
by a sojourn with those most near and dear 
to him, as well as by the daily spectacle of 
privation and anxiety exhibited by his 
neighbors and kindred, — we can readily 
imagine the zest with which he mounted 
his horse and rode, day and night, besides 
dispatching expresses over an area of fifty 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 47 

miles around the country, for ship- builders, 
smiths, and carpenters, in pursuance of this 
design. In an incredibly short time, eighty- 
six flat-bottom boats, each fitted to carry 
one hundred men, were in readiness. They 
were calked by candle-light in an open 
field ; and so weary had the indefatigable 
overseer of the enterprise become, that he 
enjoyed a refreshing sleep under one of the 
boats, notwithstanding the clank of ham- 
mers above his head. The debarkation 
commenced on Sunday the 9th of August. 
The light corps to which Major Talbot was 
attached, marched directly down the island 
towards Newport, until within cannon-shot 
of the British lines. Colonel Laurens then 
directed him to proceed alone and reconnoi- 
tre. Arrived in sight of the enemy's out- 
posts, he descried three artillery men, in a 
garden, gathering vegetables. He instantly 
sprang his horse over the wall, and threat- 
ened them with instant death if they stirred. 
Not doubting that he was a British officer, 



48 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

they apologized for their absence from the 
fort, and delivered up their hangers. The 
Major coolly drove them along the road 
before him, and sent them to his command- 
ing officer as prisoners of v^^ar. The excel- 
lent prospect of our army, however, was 
destined soon to be destroyed, as already 
hinted, for, on the same day, from the top 
of Col. Weaver's hou^e, the British fleet was 
visible in the offing ; they stood for New- 
port, and anchored outside the harbor; but 
when, on the following day, the French fleet 
went to attack them, they slipped their ca- 
bles and hastened to sea. Count D'Estaing 
gave chase, but the gale ensued, and he 
eventually returned crippled ; and on the 
twenty-second sailed for Boston, to convoy 
two of their ships that had been disabled in 
the encounter. Deprived of his co-opera- 
tion, and hourly expecting the return of the 
British fleet with reinforcements, General 
Sullivan saw no alternative but a seasonable 
retreat ; and although this was at last most 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 49 

judiciously effected, a severe action pre- 
ceded, in which the bravery and skill of our 
troops have scarcely received from the an- 
nalist the deserved meed of praise. General 
Lafayette, on his last visit to this country, 
declared his opinion that it was the best 
fought battle during the war. He was an 
eye-witness, having arrived on the field 
from Boston, whither he had hastened to in- 
duce Count D'Estaing to return to the 
assistance of Rhode Island. If he had done 
so, there is every probability that the British 
would have all been taken prisoners. The 
testimony of Colonel Trumbull, who had 
volunteered his services as aid-de-camp to 
General Sullivan, is to the same effect. His 
account of the action is graphic and im- 
pressive. He was sent at daybreak to 
Colonel Wigglesworth, of the rear-guard, on 
Quaker or Windmill Hill, with orders to 
withdraw his troops. In so doing, Trumbull 
describes himself as moving up a long, gra- 
dual acclivity, in the very line of fire ; first 
5* 



50 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

a round shot or two dropped near and 
bounded on ; then he met Col. Townsend, 
with his arm off: next Capt. Walker bade 
him farewell, as he was carried by in a dy- 
ing state ; and a moment after, a shower of 
grape fell around him like hail. On reach- 
ing the scene of action, the gallant Colonel 
shouted to the envoy, " Don't speak — I know 
your errand." " Do you see those troops 
crossing to your rear ? " asked Trumbull in 
reply. " Yes, they are Americans." " No 
sir, they are Germans : mark, their dress is 
blue and yellow, not buff. They are coming 
to intercept your retreat. Retire instantly:" 
and the order was reluctantly obeyed. 

The action of this memorable day was 
commenced by Major Talbot. The British 
had pursued General Sullivan to Butts's 
Hill, at the north of the island. Lieutenant 
Col. Laurens, with his detachment, took 
charge of the rear. They halted at Red- 
wood's house ; and when the British army 
drew near, Major Talbot, in obedience to 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 51 

orders, met and checked them. During the 
retreat, which was conducted with admi- 
rable tact, coolness, and daring, the light 
corps made every possible stand under 
cover of stone-fences and other incidental 
barriers, until supported by the main army, 
when the action became general. The 
commanding officer, in his dispatches to 
Congress, emphatically mentions the im- 
portant services rendered the country, in 
this instance, by Major Talbot, in his 
speedy provision of the means of trans- 
portation for the troops, and the gallant 
defence he maintained as an officer of the 
light corps, in the safe and orderly retreat 
from the island. 



CHAP. III. 

On the first appearance of the French fleet 
off Newport, the British, then in possession 
of the town, sunk a frigate called the Flora, 
and burned several other vessels of war, to 
prevent their being taken by the enemy. 
In consummating this revengeful policy, 
however, with the usual short-sightedness 
of mere calculators, they secured a free en- 
trance to the colonists to both the island 
passages. Their great expedient now, to 
dishearten both the continental army and 
the people, was to interrupt all communica- 
tion with the main, and thus cut off their 
supplies. Having deprived themselves of 
the readiest means to effect this purpose, by 
the voluntary destruction of so many of 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 53 

their ships, there remained no alternative 
but to blockade the two points of egress. 
In order effectually to close up what is 
called the East passage, they converted a 
fine stout vessel of about two hundred 
tons into a galley, removing her upper deck, 
and placing on her lower, twelve eight- 
pounders that belonged to the Flora, besides 
ten swivels. Strong boarding netting was 
attached: she was manned with a crew of 
forty-five, under Lieutenant Dunlap, of his 
Majesty's Navy, and named, in honor of his 
commander, the Pigot. Moored at the 
mouth of the Seconset river, she completely 
barred its entrance, and for a long period 
had kept a sullen and undisturbed watch, 
greatly to the detriment of the island and 
the army. Deficient as were the Americans 
in maritime force, at this period and in that 
region, they suffered the consequences of 
this grievous interference with their rights 
and comfort, without the hope of its remo- 
val, except through some happy turn in the 



54 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

general issues of the struggle. The bitter 
and ineffectual complaints of his unfortunate 
townsmen daily reached the ears of Major 
Talbot. We have already seen that he was 
a man of genuine sympathies and indomita- 
ble enterprise. His noble heart secretly 
bled to witness the suflfering of his patriotic 
countrymen ; his pride was wounded at the 
insolent success of the enemy, and his just 
indignation excited at wrongs incurred for 
no crime but that of ardent loyalty to 
freedom. Not only did the galley, in her 
effective position, exclude provisions and 
reinforcements from that section of the co- 
lony, but entirely broke up the local trade. 
Major Talbot brooded over schemes for 
her destruction, but they were baffled by the 
inadequacy of the means at hand ; his pro- 
jects, too, were coldly received by General 
Sullivan, who regarded them as impractica- 
ble. At length he proposed to that brave 
though cautious officer, to assume the re- 
sponsibility and expense of the attempt him- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 55 

self, with some indispensable assistance and 
the needful sanction of his commander. 
Still viewing the scheme as visionary, but 
reluctant to wound the feelings of so devoted 
an officer as his persevering ally. General 
Sullivan consented and promised a draft 
of men. With his usual alacrity and self- 
possession, the now delighted Major instantly 
began an examination of the shipping at 
Providence, in order to select a craft adapted 
to his purpose. He, at length, made choice 
of a coasting sloop called the Hawk, and, in 
two days, equipped her with two three 
pounders, and sixty men from the various 
regiments then quartered in the town. Af- 
ter setting sail, in consequence of the failure 
of the wind he was obliged to anchor within 
eight miles of port, and remain during the 
night and all the succeeding day. Such is 
the singular distribution of land and water, 
as a glance at the map will indicate, that in 
order to reach the galley, it was indispensa- 
ble for him not only to double the north 



56 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

end of the island, but to pass two of the 
enemy's forts, one at Bristol ferry, on the 
west side of the river, and the other at Fog- 
land's ferry, on the east ; the width of the 
stream at these points being three quarters 
of a mile. Not until the ensuing night did 
the wind become favorable, when they again 
started. On approaching the fort at Bristol 
ferry, they kept as near as possible to the 
opposite shore ; but, notwithstanding every 
precaution was observed to insure conceal- 
ment, the Hawk was discovered and fired 
upon ; fortunately, however, she received 
no injury, ran up Taunton river seven miles, 
and anchored near the shore, on the west 
side of Mount Hope* bay. Although now 
within fifteen miles of the galley, it was im- 
possible for her to pass the other fort in 
safety until the wind again shifted. The 
next morning, therefore. Major Talbot, leav- 
ing the Hawk in charge of Lieutenant 
Baker, proceeded in his boat to the eastern 
shore, determined to improve the interval 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 57 

by a reconnoitering expedition, thus gaining 
intelligence essential to the judicious con- 
duct of their enterprise, and, at the same 
time, soothing his impatience at the unanti- 
cipated delay. He, therefore, procured a 
horse, and rode down the shore until directly 
opposite the galley. We can easily imagine 
the feelings with which he gazed upon the 
object of this bold expedition. It was one 
of those calm, cloudless days in October, so 
enchanting in that region — now the favorite 
summer resort of citizens from every part 
of the land. At that season, the heavens 
and the atmosphere, the very tint of the 
water and touch of the breeze, remind one 
of Venice and Rome. The invigorating air 
and the lucid hues around, excite either 
imaginative or chivalric sentiment ; and 
barren as the landscape is of either pictu- 
resque or sublime features, the charms to 
which we allude make it then seem a fit 
home for poets and heroes. As Major Tal- 
bot inspected with his resolved but experi- 
6 



58 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

enced glance, the equipments of the Pigot, 
he perceived that he had undertaken to 
confront a foe " armed at all points/' The 
aspect of the galley was, indeed, that of a 
complete floating battery. The men were 
distinctly visible on deck, in the orderly ar- 
ray suggestive of exact discipline. The 
nettings were not only high, but carried 
entirely round. The only result of his ob- 
servations, how^ever, was to confirm his 
resolve to attack her without delay ; but he 
deemed it advisable to apply to General 
Cornell for a reinforcement of fifteen men 
and another officer. Accordingly Lieute- 
nant Helm, of Rhode Island, and the desired 
additional crew, were on board the Hawk 
before nine o'clock the same evening. As 
if to encourage their purpose, at that very 
hour, the wind became favorable, and they 
w^eighed anchor. Major Talbot, like all 
successful leaders, had that power over 
others, which is only the instinctive recog- 
nition of natural aristocracy. To many of 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 59 

the men now enlisted, at his instance, to 
achieve an important but most hazardous 
exploit, his prowess, reliability, attachment 
to the American cause, and sufferings in its 
behalf, were familiar. When, therefore, he 
summoned them around him, and revealed 
the object of the expedition, urging the ne- 
cessity of the utmost coolness and prompti- 
tude, and intimating the prospect both of 
reward and honor, there was an immediate 
and unanimous response. As the sloop 
dropped silently down the river, they lashed 
a kedge-anchor to the jib-boom, to tear and 
at the same time grapple with the nettings 
of the Pigot. They drifted by the Fogland 
fort, under bare poles, without being disco- 
vered, although they saw tlie sentinel each 
time he passed the barrack light. This was 
a most auspicious circumstance, for one 
shot would have given an alarm to the gal- 
ley. All hands being ready for action, they 
again hoisted sail ; but, fearing they should 
run astray of their object in the darkness, 



60 LT.'E OF TALBOT. 

soon cast anchor once more, lowered a 
boat, and went in search of her with muffled 
oars. They had proceeded but a few rods, 
when her sombre form was seen rising in 
the gloom ; they noted how she rode with 
the wind and tide, returned to the Hawk, 
and directed her course accordingly. Being 
soon perceived by the watch on the deck 
of the galley, they were repeatedly hailed, 
but made no answer ; when nearly along- 
side, a volley of musketry was discharged at 
them : but before the Pigot could fire one 
gun, the jib-boom of the Hawk had torn its 
way through the nettings, and grappled the 
foreshrouds ; while their salute had been 
amply returned, and Lieutenant Helm, fol- 
lowed by his detachment, mounted the deck 
sword in hand. With shouts the crew of 
the Hawk drove every man into the hold of 
the galley, except the commander, who 
fought desperately in his shirt and drawers, 
until convinced that resistance was useless. 
When informed, however, that he w^as van- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 61 

quished by a little sloop, he wept over his 
inevitable disgrace, and Major Talbot in 
vain offered him the condolence which, as a 
generous victor, he felt at his mortification. 
This brilliant coup-de-main was effected 
without the loss of a man on either side. 
The triumphant party weighed the anchors 
of the long execrated galley, coiled her ca- 
bles over the gratings to keep their captives 
safe, made sail, and arrived the next day at 
Stonington, Ct., where they landed the 
prisoners, and marched them in triumph to 
Providence. In the succeeding November, 
Captain Talbot received the following letter 
and resolution from the President of Con- 
gress : 

Philadelphia, 17th Nov. 1778. 

Sir, — I feel a very high degree of pleasure 
in obeying the orders of Congress by trans- 
mitting an Act of the 14th inst., for express- 
ing the sense of the House, of the bravery 
and good conduct of yourself, and the offi- 
6* 



62 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

cers and men under your command, in 
taking the armed schooner Pigot, and for 
granting you a commission of Lieutenant 
Colonel in the Army of the United States, 
in acknowledgment of your merit. 

You will receive, Sir, within the present 
inclosure, the commission annexed to the 
Act, and will be pleased to signify to your 
officers and men, the applause due to them 
on this occasion. 

I entreat you to accept my best wishes 
that you may have many future opportuni- 
ties of distinguishing your character in the 
annals of your country, and that you will be 
assured, 

I am, with great respect and esteem, Sir, 
Your obd't and most humble servant, 
Henry Laurens, 

President of Congress. 

Silas Talbot, Esa., 
Lieut. Col. in the Army of the United States 
of America, Providence. 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 63 

''November Uth, 1778. Resolved, that 
Congress have a high sense of the bravery 
and good conduct of Major Silas Talbot, of 
the State of Rhode Island, and the officers and 
men under his command, in boarding and 
taking the armed schooner Pigot, of eight 
twelve-pounders and forty-five men, in the 
East Passage, between Rhode Island and 
the main ; and that he, as a reward of his 
merit, and for the encouragement of a spirit 
of enterprise, be pi'esented with the Com- 
mission of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army 
of the United States." 

Thus once more an achievement of this 
gallant American officer raised the drooping 
spirits of his countrymen. Depressed by 
the failure of the recent attempt on the 
English garrison at Newport, their hopes 
had languished : now they were magically 
revived. The mere fact that the long sus- 
pended intercourse by sea w^as renewed, 
carried buoyancy to many hearts and com- 



64 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

fort to a thousand homes. The enemy re- 
Hnquished any farther experiments to block- 
ade the island. Congratulations, acknow- 
ledgments, and honors, were proffered the 
bold leader in this enterprise, from all 
quarters. The Assembly of his native State 
presented him with a sword ; but perhaps, 
of all the compliments bestowed on the oc- 
casion, the one he received with the great- 
est relish, was the character awarded him, 
in the British report of the loss of the 
Pigot — "one of the greatest arch-rebels in 
nature !" 



CHAPTER IV. 

The career of the hero, in whatever sphere, 
is one of alternate success and disaster; and 
his very eminence principally consists in the 
spirit with which he encounters disappoint- 
ment, rendering it only an impulse to new 
effort. Two enterprises in aid of the great 
cause so dear to him, and involving the 
welfare of his native State, Major Talbot 
was obliged relunctantly to abandon, in 
consequence of unforeseen and inevitable 
obstacles. The first was an attack on the 
Renown, a famed vessel of the enemy, car- 
rying fifty guns ; whose cruising ground, for 
a considerable time, was off the isle of 
Providence. This expedition was frustrated 
by the ice ; fortunately, however, its neces- 



66 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

sity was soon obviated by the departure of 
the Renown, she being ordered to another 
station, and Rhode Island thus again opened 
to the sea. The British, notwithstanding, 
maintained a craft of forty-four guns in the 
vicinity, which occasionally appeared and 
threatened mischief. The Hawk was re- 
equipped by her former commander, with 
a view to surprise this vessel ; but on their 
way to sea, the pilot run her on a shoal, and 
much to the chagrin of Major Talbot, this 
project was also unavoidably relinquished. 
A remarkable proof of the self-devotion 
of the leaders in our revolution, may be 
found in their willingness to sacrifice offi- 
cial rights to immediate utility. It is an 
acknowledged fact that professional men, 
especially those of superior gifts and honor- 
able zeal, are peculiarly sensitive to the 
recognition both of their rank and charac- 
ter. Indeed a feeling of self-respect is the 
natural accompaniment of high qualities. 
There are undoubtedly instances, some quite 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 67 

notorious, of the repudiation of commissions, 
and the abandonment of the cause, on the 
part of those engaged in the American war, 
because of the tardy promotion or inade- 
quate equipment furnished them by the 
government ; but it is, as a general rule, 
true that the personal history of many who 
distinguished themselves in the achievement 
of our independence, reveals a series of 
compromises with individual rights and offi- 
cial claims, in order more effectually to 
promote the public good, and advance the 
cause of freedom, more creditable to the 
parties as men, than their most brilliant acts 
as soldiers. In this manner the very soul of 
republicanism displayed itself; pride was 
cheerfully yielded to duty, and technical 
distinction not allowed to weigh a moment 
in the balance, with the demands of sincere 
patriotism. Perhaps, no man of that day 
affords a nobler example of this little appre- 
ciated species of self-devotion, than Silas 
Talbot. He was, by nature, not less proud 



68 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

than determined, keenly alive to the least 
interference with his individuality, and to 
the full extent, conscious of " that last infir- 
nnity of noble minds " — the ambition of 
justly earned renown. Yet we have seen 
with what unhesitating ardor he offered his 
services whenever any exigency occurred ; 
how considerate he proved himself of the 
impoverished state of the colonies, in seek- 
ing the appointments required for each ex- 
pedition either in person or at his own 
expense ; and how subordinate, in every 
arrangement, were all motives and purposes 
to attachment to his country and the suc- 
cess of her arms. In accordance with this 
disinterested enthusiasm, throughout the 
war. Colonel Talbot was equally ready to 
take the field or hazard the dangers of a 
naval conflict. On land or water he com- 
manded with the same efficient authority, 
planned with the same. valorous daring, and 
fought with the same intrepidity. 

A letter addressed him, about this period, 



LIFE OF TALBOT. • 69 

by Lafayette, is an interesting testimony to 
the justice of this view of his character : 

Bristol, Sept. 8, 1778. 

Sir, — The reputation you have ah'eady ac- 
quired by your zeal and skill in the artificial 
way, leads me to communicate to you a plan 
"whereby I think some success would be ob- 
tained. Heavy and strong scows, upon 
each of which a twenty-four pounder might 
be fixed, and then sent on a calm night to 
attack an English frigate that lies at the 
north end of the island ; such a direction 
could be taken as to avoid a broadside from 
her before many well-aimed shots had an- 
noyed her exceedingly. At the same time, 
while she was busy on the defensive, four 
or five boats filled with bombs and combus- 
tibles could be sent to the other side to ig- 
nite her. If you believe, sir, such a scheme 
would succeed, I shall be obliged to you if 
you will come immediately from Providence 
wdth such artificial provisions as will enable 
7 



70 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

US to try the experiment without loss of 
time. You might also bring down three, 
four, or more, large scows or ferry-boats 
adapted to carrying guns. The affair must 
be be kept very secret. With the greatest 
and most sincere esteem, 

I have the honor to be, dear sir, 
Your most obedient servant. 
The MARauis de Lafayette. 

To Major Talbot. 

A seaman in early youth, he entered the 
army in manhood ; and accordingly, though 
his exploit with the fire-ship was a maritime 
service, he was, as we have seen, promoted 
to a major's rank for that action ; and made 
a lieutenant-colonel for his bold capture of 
the Pigot. The phraseology, dates, and 
even the paper and chirography of these 
commissions might serve as historic land- 
marks. The first is entirely written in a 
stiff hand on a half-sheet, of paper, and sets 
/ forth, under date of June 28th, 1775, that 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 71 

" the General Assembly of our English Co- 
lony of Rhode Island and Providence Plan- 
tations in New England in America " have 
raised a Company and appointed Silas Talbot, 
gentleman, Captain thereof, "for the preser- 
vation of the rights and liberties of his Majes- 
ty's loyal and faithful subjects in this colony 
of Aaierica." It is signed by the colonial 
secretary, Henry Ward. Another, dated the 
Istof July of the same year, is of the ordinary 
printed form issued by Congress, and signed 
by John Hancock, its president, authorizing 
Mr. Talbot to act as Captain of a company 
in the Fourteenth regiment, commanded by 
Col. Hitchcock. Another, of the 14th of 
Nov., 1778, appoints him lieutenant-colonel 
in " the army of the United States, raised 
for the defence of American liberty;" while 
one under date of April 14th, 1780, signed 
by both National and State authorities, gives 
him full powers as " commander of the 
sloop Argo." His commission as Captain 
in the Navy, under its new organization, is 



72 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

signed by John Adams, and dated on the 
25th of June, 1796; and that instructing 
him " to visit and occasionally reside in any 
ports of the West Indies, as agent of the 
United States, " under the act of Congress 
for the relief and protection of American 
seamen," is engrossed on parchment in am- 
ple form, and signed by Washington. 

If honor thus followed him in the ranks 
of the land forces, glory spread her harvest 
for him on the wild element famihar to his 
boyhood. The year after his famous en- 
encounter with the galley at the head of 
Seconset river, he was transferred to the 
navy. It was the purpose and the earnest 
desire of Congress to give him a government 
vessel worthy of his reputation and a fit 
agent for his prowess. So restricted was 
our marine, and so drained the treasury by 
the current expenses of the war, that this 
auspicious intention could not be realized ; 
and for awhile the gallant major was obliged 
to content himself with the anomalous re- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 73 

ward of promotion in the army for skill and 
courage exhibited on the water, until, in 
1779, he became a captain in the navy, with- 
out a national vessel to command. 

PmLADELraiA, 18th Sept., 1779. 

Sir, — The bravery and spirit of enterprise 
you have on frequent occasions displayed 
in the service of your country, justly en- 
title you to the honor done you by the 
inclosed Act of Congress of the 17th inst. 
I am persuaded you will consider it as an 
additional motive to continue those exer- 
tions, from which you have derived reputa- 
tion, and your country received benefit. 

With great esteem, I am. Sir, your most 

obedient and humble servant. 

John Jay, 

President. 
Lieut. Col. Talbot. 

''September 11 th, 1719. Resolved, that, 
in consideration of the distinguished merit 



74 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

of Lieutenant Col. Talbot, a commission of 
Captain in the Navy of the United States 
be given him, but that his pay and rations 
as Lieutenant Colonel cease whWe actually 
employed in the Navy; and that the marine 
committee be directed to provide a proper 
vessel for him as soon as possible." 

Soon, however, the critical state of afiairs 
induced (congress to issue specific orders, by 
w^hich Captain Talbot was directed to arm 
a naval force sufficient to protect the coast 
then harassed by the British from Long 
Island to Nantucket, so that the supplies of 
the American army, under General Gates, 
were cut off. It therefore became the duty 
of the newly-appointed Captain, to avail 
himself of the best resources at hand. He 
was not only baffled in this endeavor by 
the poverty of Congress, but by the scarcity 
of vessels. He, however, armed at Provi- 
dence his former prize, the Pigot, and a 
sloop called the Argo. Of the latter, un- 
worthy as she was of the distinction, and 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 75 

ill-adapted to the objects for which she 
was destined, he cheerfully took command. 
Humble as this merchant sloop would now 
appear in the eyes of a naval officer, under 
the skilful and brave guidance of a genuine 
patriot and heroic man, she soon became 
renowned. Her very inferiority made her 
triumphs more signal ; and her career added 
to the many immortal proofs, yielded by 
that unequal war, that not in the material 
agencies, but in the ruling spirit of a nation, 
exist the most reliable sources of her glory. 
The Argo was built in New- York, and be- 
longed to a mercantile house there. She 
was of only one hundred tons burthen, had 
a wide stern, a high bulk-head, and no 
wheel ; she was steered by means of a long 
tiller. The only part of her that possessed 
the least grace was the model of her lower 
frame. Her aspect was clumsy, and greatly 
resembled that of an old-fashioned Albany 
sloop. At first she carried ten, and after- 
wards twelve guns, two of which were 



76 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

mounted in the cabin. Thus narrowly 
provided, with a crew of sixty, Captain 
Talbot sailed from Providence, under orders 
from General Gates, in May, 1779. Among 
his men were very few seamen ; many of 
them, indeed, had never heard cannon ex- 
cept when fired as distant salutes. Their 
Captain, however, had availed himself of 
an extensive and intimate acquaintance 
with the people of his native State and its 
vicinity, to select men of character, active 
habits, and patriotic integrity. He knew, 
from his own consciousness, that the enlist- 
ment of the heart was the best inspiration 
to deeds of valor; that a clear resolve was 
more efficient than a knowledge of tactics, 
and that true fidelity would soon nurse 
instinctive bravery into systematic power. 
On the appearance of the Argo, many of 
the British cruisers ran into Newport har- 
bor ; but a series of chases and skirmishes 
ensued, which enabled Captain Talbot to 
drill his men, manoeuvre his vessel, and 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 77 

establish that alacrity of obedience, unity of 
purpose, and thorough discipline, which after- 
wards gave such efficiency to his little craft. 
After clearing from her annoying visit- 
ors the coast of Rhode Island, in accordance 
with his orders, Captain Talbot extended 
his cruise ; and soon captured the Lively, of 
twelve guns, and two letter-of-marque brigs 
from the West Indies, bound to New York, 
which he carried to Boston. At this period 
success like this had a more than apparent 
significance. The prizes were acquisitions 
greatly needed ; the fears that prevailed 
along the coast, on account of the British 
incursions, were much allayed, and the 
confidence of his men both in him and 
themselves, essentially deepened. The ar- 
rival of the Argo was therefore gratefully 
w^elcomed, and her departure eagerly 
watched, sometimes with tearful, but often 
with hopeful and exultant eyes. 

One fervent desire, however, animated 
every patriotic spectator, whenever she 



78 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

hoisted sail at a Rhode Island port, and 
her well-known form was seen to hover in 
the distance and approach the coast, or gal- 
lantly depart seaward. Of all the maritime 
enemies of the State, celebrated as she was 
for loj^alty to freedom, one infested her 
shores peculiarly obnoxious to the people. 
This was a Tory privateer of fourteen guns, 
called the King George. She was com^ 
manded by Captain Hazard, and manned 
with a crew of eighty. From his familiarity 
with the region and people, this detested in- 
dividual had succeeded in inflicting severe 
trials upon his countrymen and neighbors. 
Many of his captures were made under cir- 
cumstances of great aggravation ; and the 
fact of his vessel being employed so con- 
stantly against former intimate associates 
and friends, and of his being a native of the 
State against whose liberties and prosperity 
he was arrayed, naturally excited towards 
him the most bitter indignation. The in- 
habitants of Providence, Stoninston, and 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 79 

New London, ardently hoped that the Argo 
would encounter the King George. She 
seemed to be her legitimate adversary, and 
Captain Talbot and his men, acquainted as 
they were with the plunder of townsmen 
committed by this traitorous adventurer, no 
less earnestly anticipated being the instru- 
ments of his punishment. For a long pe- 
riod, however, their hopes were unrealized ; 
either from the accidental distance which 
separated their courses, or because the tory 
captain, fearing to encounter his justly in- 
censed countrymen, kept out of the way, 
they did not seem destined to meet. But 
fortune, ever so favorable to brave aspira- 
tion, at length smiled upon the republican 
flag. One fine clear day, about the hour of 
noon, when the sea was partially smooth. 
Captain Talbot, who was cruising about 
forty leagues from Long Island, descried the 
King George. His crew needed no appeal 
to concentrate their energies upon this exe- 
crated foe. The Argo bore down upon her 



80 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

like an eagle on its prey ; and no sooner 
had one well-directed broadside made her 
reel to the shock of battle, than the eager 
crew sprang impetuously on her decks, and 
she instantly surrendered. It was the work 
of a moment, and, as in a former memorable 
instance. Captain Talbot gained possession 
of his long-sought prize without the loss of 
a man on either side. It is impossible not 
to recognize, in both cases, the influence of 
moral energy. The stern purpose of the 
leader and his devoted followers was ren- 
dered intense by the consciousness of the 
wrongs they avenged, of the nobleness of 
their motives, and the justice of their cause. 
They accordingly acted with a zealous una- 
nimity that insured a triumph. They smote 
their enemy with one simultaneous onset, one 
united cry of defiance, and, as it were, with 
one crushing blow. It is far more easy to 
imagine than to describe the exultation that 
welcomed the victors when they carried the 
King George into the harbor of New Lon- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 81 

don ; the entire range of the northern sea- 
board cordially participated in this feeling, 
and the Argo's fame was now established 
by the activity and success of her arms. 
As yet, however, she had captured five ves- 
sels without any thing that might be called 
a battle. But this experience had given a 
rare discipline and efficiency to her crew ; 
and had demonstrated that superior valor 
and skill enables a small vessel to cope with 
one of much greater size and muniment, 
less ably and courageously managed. Ere 
long an opportunity was afforded to test by 
experiment the truth of this conviction. 
Early in August, a sail was discovered from 
the mast-head of the Argo. It proved to be 
a large armed ship. They approached 
each other, hailed, and a desperate fight 
immediately began. During four hours and 
a half the battle raged fiercely, and during 
this time the two vessels were within pistol 
shot of each other. Captain Talbot's speak- 
ing trumpet was pierced in two places, the 
8 



82 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

skirts of his coat shot off, and nearly every 
man on the quarter-deck killed or wounded. 
Still neither vessel gave indications of a 
wish to bring the exterminating contest to 
an end. With unflinching perseverance 
each continued the deadly fray, until, at 
length, the ship's mainmast fell and she sur- 
rendered. At the same instant an alarm 
was given that the Argo was sinking ; her 
commander, undismayed, ordered her hull 
to be plugged, and, by this means, she was 
kept afloat. 

r His new and hardly won acquisition 
proved to be the ship Dragon. Upon the 
news of this victory, that seemed to confirm 
the naval aptitudes of Captain Talbot, Con- 
gress ordered that his pay as Colonel in the 
army should cease, and that an appropriate 
national vessel should be placed under his 
command — a thing, as we have already 
seen, more easily said than done. The 
next instance of daring recorded of him 
is his having chased, by mistake, a sixty- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 83 

four British man-of-war, several miles. He 
did not discover his error until her broad- 
side, with its terrible array, was suddenly- 
presented to his view, as she rounded to- 
wards the now apparently doomed Argo. 
Nothing daunted by this unlooked-for peril. 
Captain Talbot ordered the sweeps to be 
manned. It was almost a perfect calm, and 
his light craft was thus enabled to gain upon 
her bulky antagonist, and, though her hull 
was repeatedly pierced, she at last escaped, 
as it were, by a miracle ; and carried home 
one of the shot that lodged on her deck, and 
weighed thirty-two pounds, as a trophy of 
the imminent risk she thus survived. That 
he continued actively employed with the 
Argo, through the autumn, is evident from 
the annexed letter. 

Bristol, 21st October, 1779, 
4 o'clock, P. M. 

Sir, — Upon the receipt of this letter, you 
will proceed with the Argo, the galley and 



84 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

the Ordnance sloop, under your command, 
to Norwich neck ; — as the regiment are 
wanted at Bristol, I have ordered them to 
proceed directly thither. You will do well 
to advise them to keep the eastern shore. 
Upon your arrival at Norwich neck, you 
will receive my further orders. 
I am, Sir, 

Your humble servant, 

Horatio Gates. 
To Lt. Col. Silas Talbot, or officer com- 
manding the vessels at Pawtucket. 

The fame of the Argo had now reached 
her owners in New- York, and they reclaim- 
ed her. The services rendered by Captain 
Talbot while in command of her, to the 
Federal army of the Eastern States by 
prize-money, were formally acknowledged 
by General Gates, according to whose cer- 
tificate, three hundred prisoners and five 
valuable merchantmen were the fruit of 
her brief career. By this means essential 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 85 

relief was afforded the troops. Of the six 
British privateers taken by the Argo, the 
smallest carried twelve guns. Captain Tal- 
bot's leputation as a naval hero, was thus 
firmly established and warmly recognized ; 
the fame of his achievements was greatly 
enhanced by the apparent inadequacy of 
the means employed, and the great imme- 
diate importance of the services he rendered, 
both as a means of physical relief and moral 
encouragement to the army and the people 
of his native State. It was a time of singu- 
lar privation and great vicissitude to the 
adherents of the national cause on land : 
and the occasional advantages gained, along 
the coast, by our spirited marine, were the 
more auspicious and cheering to the hearts 
of the people. 

The following is the certificate of General 
Gates before alluded to : — 

"In the spring of the year 1779, when I 
had the honor of commanding a part of the 
Federal forces of the United States of 
8* 



86 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

America, in the Eastern Department, a great 
number of small British cruisers infested our 
coast. They were so closely stationed from 
Long Island to Nantucket, that our trade 
and supplies were totally interrupted, and 
the forces under my command greatly dis- 
tressed by the enemy's captures, whereupon 
Congress directed me to arm vessels for the 
protection of our coast. To that effect, I 
armed a large galley and a sloop named the 
Argo, mounting twelve six-pounders, to the 
command of which I appointed Silas Talbot, 
Esquire, of the State of Rhode Island. That 
intrepid and enterprising otficer was emi- 
nently useful, and greatly assisted in driving 
the enemy from our coast, and relieving our 
wants, by opening a safer passage to our 
supplies by water. In the course of his first 
cruise, he took six British privateers, the 
smallest of which mounted twelve guns ; 
and our troops were partly subsisted by the 
prizes he sent us. On the first of August of 
the same year, the French fleet being ex- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 87 

pected on our coast, I ordered him to cruise 
in quest of it, to deliver some dispatches to 
its admiral ; and I gave Capt. Talbot a 
discretionary power to make prizes of all 
British vessels he might think proper to 
attack. In that cruise, he captured five 
valuable merchantmen bound to New- York, 
and chiefly loaded with provisions. The 
United States having received one-half of 
the captures, were greatly benefited by his 
success, which, besides the pecuniary ad- 
vantages it procured them, and the imme- 
diate relief it gave our troops, put upwards 
of three hundred British prisoners into our 
hands. In testimony w^hereof, I deliver 
this certificate to Captain Silas Talbot. 
Given under my hand at Philadelphia, this 
seventeenth day of July, in the year 1783. 
Horatio Gates, 
Maj. Gen. 



CHAPTER V. 

There are two great phases of heroic Hie 
very unequally exhibited even by coura- 
geous men — action and endurance, achieve- 
ment and fortitude, the impassioned energy 
of a Murat and the unswerving confidence 
of a Caesar. Hitherto the public life of 
Captain Talbot had been one of absorbing 
excitement. Indeed, we can imagine few 
situations better adapted to keep alive the 
spirit of daring and the zest of adventure, 
than that of the commander of a successful 
and well-manned cruiser in time of war, es- 
pecially when the solemn interest of the 
question at issue, and the desperate charac- 
ter of the struggle, naturally enlist the most 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 89 

ardent personal feelings, as was the case in 
the war for American Independence. A 
series of triumphs had tested the active bra- 
very of the Argo's chief and the disciplined 
valor of her crew ; and now a different spe- 
cies of courage was to be tried, a new order 
of heroism developed. To fight valiantly 
for his country is the patriot's instinct ; to 
suffer in her behalf demands a martyr's pa- 
tience. Deprived of his fortunate and now 
famous craft, and informed by a letter from 
the committee of Congress on naval affairs, 
that " the government had every desire to 
give him a respectable command, but abso- 
lutely wanted the means to do it ;" Captain 
Talbot accepted a private ship, called the 
George Washington, thus again yielding 
personal gratification to the earnest desire 
of being useful to the cause for which he 
had so long and faithfully contended. The 
sacrifice, however, was not destined to re- 
sult as brilliantly as on the former occasions. 
He had captured but a single prize with his 



90 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

new vessel, when, at daybreak one morn- 
ing, he found himself in the midst of a large 
fleet of English men-of-war, two of which 
instantly gave him chase. A gale soon 
arose, and one of his pursuers, a seventy- 
four, dropped astern ; the other, the Cullo- 
den, continued to follow, and before night 
captured her diminutive enemy. Captain 
Talbot, worn out with the solicitude and 
exertions of this bitter day, was at first car- 
ried on board the Robuste, and then trans- 
ferred to a tender, whose commander — a 
Scotch lord — put his gallant captive into 
the hold. The only excuse for this dastardly 
behavior is to be found in the craven fears 
of his lordship. By a remarkable coinci- 
dence, the pilot he employed was the same 
formerly on board the Pigot, and this man 
so frightened his superior with the story of 
his prisoner's reckless daring, that he — not- 
withstanding a written remonstrance which 
Captain Talbot forwarded to the British 
Admiral — was kept thus confined below, 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 91 

until they reached New- York ; and the arm- 
chest was removed to the cabin. 

It is proverbial that cowardice and ty- 
ranny are joint attributes of character, and 
perhaps for this reason, during the revolu- 
lution, the American prisoners were ahnost 
invariably consigned to brutal officers. No 
brave man would, indeed, covet an occupa- 
tion so passive and degrading as that of a 
military jailer ; and the gross inhumanity 
on the part of those to whom this revolting 
office was assigned by the English, can only 
be explained by the vulgar despotism natural 
to their characters. For many years after 
the termination of the war, a melancholy 
token of this barbarous tyranny remained 
on the shores of Long Island, near where the 
infamous Jersey prison-ship was moored. 
When the tide ebbed, the bones of those 
who had perished on board, amid the hor- 
rors of famine, contagion, and darkness, 
were exposed to view. Freneau accounts 
for the circumstance in a pathetic line of his 



92 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

verses commemorative of those poor suffer- 
ers, who were buried by their dying com- 
rades — " By feeble hands their shallow 
graves were made." Although now de- 
cently interred, with a monument erected 
over them, near the site of their living sepul- 
chre, the memory of that vile outrage upon 
civilization is too deeply engraven by the 
pen of the annalist on the national heart, 
ever to be forgotten. To the Jersey prison- 
ship Captain Talbot was now conveyed. 
Let us realize, in fancy, the change from 
victory to captivity, from the free winds 
and broad expanse of the sea, to the dark 
hold of that receptacle of woe, amid half- 
naked wretches, dying of thirst ; no bench 
or berth upon which to rest ; the air loath- 
some, the water corrupted, every sense tor- 
tured, and every function deranged. The 
ravings of the delirious, the moans of the 
famishing, expostulations, prayers, and hor- 
rid oaths, resounded on all sides. When al- 
lowed, as a necessary means of prolonging 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 93 

existence, to ascend to the deck, through 
the open port-holes, the captives turned 
their fevered eyes to the umbrageous hills 
of the opposite shore, and beheld signs of 
plenty and comfort around, while their 
frames were poisoned with unwholesome 
food, and their tongues parched for a 
draught of pure water. To the noble spirit, 
even these occasional escapes from the con- 
tagious atmosphere of the hx)ld, were em- 
bittered by the brutality of the keepers — a 
"base-born Hessian," or "servile Scot," 
who, with taunts, blows, and even kicks, 
vented their cowardly rage upon the help- 
less victims. 

From the prison-ship Captain Talbot was 
removed to the jail in New- York, a scene 
of misery on the one side, and despotic cru- 
elty on the other, scarcely less renowned in 
local tradition. Here, under the infamous 
Cunningham, he endured three weeks of 
galling captivity. Few buildings in this 
country possessed a more tragic and histo- 
9 



94 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

rical interest than the "Old Sugar House," 
as it was called, to which Captain Talbot 
was now transferred. It is but a few years 
since this edifice was removed, to give place 
to the range of stores which now occupy its 
site in Liberty-street. It was a gloomy 
stone building, five stories in height, each 
divided into two apartments, with low ceil- 
ings and windows that admitted insufficient 
light. Indeed its aspect was remarkably 
like" a prison, to which it was converted in 
1776 by Lord Howe. Here the American 
captives were incarcerated ; and the details 
of privation, disease and mortality there 
experienced, are only equalled by those in- 
flicted on board of the enemy's ships. A 
New- York gentleman, fond of revolutionary 
memorials, yet keeps as a precious relic the 
winduw-shutter which his unfortunate coun- 
trymen were accustomed daily to unhinge, 
and use as a checker-board to while away 
the tedious hours of durance ; and when 
the old walls were taken down, countless 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 95 

initials and dates were found cut with nails 
and penknives upon the bricks and stones. 
Around this dark abode of misery the Brit- 
ish and Hessian patrols moved constantly. 
Here fever, in its worst type, raged ; the 
dead-cart bore thence its nightly burdens ; 
and the emaciated invalids approached the 
windows by turns, six at a time, to inhale a 
breath of fresh air. 

In November, 1780, on a cold morning and 
in the midst of a hail storm. Captain Talbot 
was marched with seventy-one other prison- 
ers, including officers of the first grade and 
seamen of the lowest order, from this recep- 
tacle of misery to the water's edge, and put 
on board the Yarmouth. Notwithstanding 
the extreme severity of the weather, they 
were kept huddled together on the poop- 
deck, without the slightest refreshment until 
night ; when they were driven into the 
hold, already nearly filled with casks of 
provisions, upon which loose planks were 
laid, the intervening space not allowing an 



96 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

upright posture. No light or air entered 
but what found their way through a scuttle 
only large enough to admit one prisoner at 
a time. Obliged to sit, kneel or crawl in 
this dismal abode, and deprived of the ade- 
quate means of respiration, they soon re- 
newed the worst experience of the prison- 
ship. Before morning there rose among 
them a desperate cry for water : a bottle 
was lowered, and such was the fierce strug- 
gle that ensued among the bewildered 
wretches, that scarcely one moistened his 
lips ; and this miserable scene was again 
and again enacted. The air, at length, be- 
came so vitiated that a contagious fever 
broke out among the prisoners, and soon 
communicated to the sailors. Fear gained 
for the victims what pity had failed to yield. 
They were drawn up in squads, and placed 
in hammocks swung over the hog-pens. By 
this process, continued through a winter 
voyage of seven weeks, these unfortunate 
men were alternately exposed to a putrid 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 97 

and suffocating heat and intense cold, so 
that when landed and sent to the hospital, 
their appearance was frightful. The mal- 
treatment now resorted to, under the name 
of a curative discipline, soon yet more re- 
duced their number. The elasticity of a 
naturally vigorous constitution, and the 
strength of an indomitable will, enabled 
Captain Talbot to survive all these trials ; 
and he was no sooner convalescent and re- 
moved to the guard-ship, and thence to 
Dartmoor prison, than he made a bold 
attempt to recover his liberty; discovered 
in the act, he was confined for forty days 
on half-allowance, in a dungeon ; three 
times he thus incurred the same penalty for 
similar and equally unsuccessful experi- 
ments. This characteristic hardihood indi- 
cates a spirit unbroken, and a firmness of 
purpose unsubdued by months of the most 
exhausting physical deprivation and baffled 
moral energy. At length the hour of his 
release, so long sighed for, and so bravely 
9* 



98 LIFE OF TALBOT, 

sought, arrived ; but it found him destitute 
in a foreign land. In reply to an applica- 
tion for pecuniary assistance in the straits 
to which he was reduced, he received the 
following letter from John Jay, our Minister 
at the Court of Spain : 

Madrid, 14 July, 1781. 

Sir, — Although I have not had the plea- 
sure of your acquaintance, I am not a 
stranger to your merit. 

On receiving your favor of the 11th ult., 
I sent a copy of it to his excellency Dr. 
Franklin, and warmly recommended your 
case to his attention. I am persuaded he 
will do all in his power for your relief, and 
that the distinguished manner in which you 
have served your country will always be 
considered as giving you a title to her care 
and protection. 

Not being authorized by Congress to pro- 
vide for American prisoners in England, I 
could not justify undertaking it ; and there- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 99 

fore referred your application to Dr. Frank- 
lin, within whose department that business 
appears to me to fall. 

I shall always be ready, as an individual, 
to contribute to the relief of my distressed 
countrymen, and should now give you 
proofs of it, but as your case and that of 
your fellow-prisoners ought to be, and pro- 
bably are, provided for by the public, I think 
assistance should there be asked and denied, 
before it becomes the duty of private bene- 
volence to supply public omissions. 

If the application to Dr. Franklin should 
be fruitless, I shall then consider myself 
bound, as a good American, to contribute 
towards the relief of a fellow-citizen, who 
has nobly fought in the cause of our coun- 
try ; and I shall, in that case, desire Mr. 
Williams at Nantes, who forwarded your 
letter to me, to advance you fifty dollars on 
my private account, which sum you will 
repay to me whenever you may be in cir- 
cumstances to do it ; for should misfortunes 



100 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

delay or prevent your being in that situa- 
tion, it would be more agreeable to me to 
advance you a further sum, than to demand 
the repayment df this. I am, sir, with real 
esteem, 

Your most ob't and very humble servant, 

John Jay. 
Capt. Silas Talbot, 

Late of the Washington ship of war. 

He was exchanged for a British officer 
in France, and landed at Cherbourg in De- 
cember, 1781, after a captivity of fifteen 
months, perhaps unequalled in the history 
of the Revolution for continuous and un- 
mitigated suffering. At Paris, Captain Tal- 
bot obtained what pecuniary aid he required, 
from Dr. Franklin, and then hastened to 
Nantes, where he met a large number of 
enfranchised American prisoners. He im- 
mediately engaged passage for home in 
a brig about to sail ; but, fifteen days only 
after leaving port, she was captured by the 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 101 

Jupiter, a British privateer of thirty-two 
guns. Her captain, however, whose name 
was Craig, appears to have exceeded in 
genuine humanity the cruel tyranny of his 
prisoner's former captors. He not only 
treated him with all possible kindness and 
consideration, but transferred him to an 
English brig they encountered, on her way 
from Lisbon to New York. 

It was early in the spring of 1782 that a 
wayfarer might have been seen on the road 
between Stony Brook — since well known 
to New Yorkers as the home of the rustic 
painter Mount— and the beautifully located 
town of Huntington, on Long Island. Al- 
though an isolated pedestrian, he moved on- 
ward with obvious alacrity, looked around 
upon the somewhat rugged landscape with 
complacency, and his erect and thoughtful 
air suggested that he was, at all events, a 
voluntary pilgrim. It requires no great 
effort of imagination to picture the reveries 
that beguiled his solitary march. Doubtless 



102 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

memory and hope blended their hues, and 
softened the rude outhne of sutFering traced 
by the deep furrow of experience ; doubtless 
he mused of a happy boyhood, so calmly 
passed in a rural homestead — of an active 
youth, during which he learned how to 
grapple with the elements both of nature 
and life, — and of a manhood earnestly de- 
voted to his country's fre'edom, crowned 
with many thrilling triumphs, and sweetened 
by the amenities of honored citizenship and 
domestic affections. And then came a 
dreary interlude of misfortune ; the remi- 
niscence, too fresh not to rankle still in his 
manly bosom, of captivity on sea and shore, 
embittered by disease, privation and insult. 
And now he once again stands on his native 
soil — a freeman, with the proud conscious- 
ness of having been true to himself and the 
noble cause he had espoused ; and proved 
by endurance as well as valor his claim to 
the title of patriot. He was slowly ap- 
proaching the home of his childhood and the 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 103 

bosom of his family ; no longer an exile or 
a prisoner, the traces of his recent stern ex- 
perience, badges of honor as they were, 
already began to melt in the warmth of ge- 
nial anticipations and exultant purpose. On 
the arrival of the brig that so opportunely 
crossed his ocean path, at New York, Cap- 
tain Talbot obtained passage on board a 
wood-boat then starting for Stony Brook, 
and thence walked to a public house fifteen 
miles distant, known to travellers in that 
then thinly-populated district, as Munroe's. 
Here he tarried a week to recruit his ex- 
hausted strength, and obtain needful infor- 
mation ; crossed the Sound at night, and 
landed at Fairfield in Connecticut. He 
then proceeded by water to New London, 
and thence overland to Providence, R. I., 
where he arrived in safety after an eventful 
absence of nearly two years. 

The conflicting rights and duties incident 
to the versatile employment of official talent 
and bravery in the war of the Revolution, 



104 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

is one of its more striking peculiarities. In 
attempting to settle his claims with the go- 
vernment, Captain Talbot experienced the 
usual difficulty. The letter addressed him 
on this occasion, by the Commander-in- 
chief, is too characteristic to be omitted : 

Head-Qdarters, 13th August, 1782. 

Sir, — Your letter of the 8th ult. only 
reached me a few days ago. You may very 
well suppose that it is impossible for me, 
amidst the great variety of business which 
comes before me, to remember with any 
tolerable degree of accuracy, what passed 
only verbally so long ago as the times to 
which you refer. It is more than probable 
that I did, upon your expressing a wish to 
be employed in the marine if you could not 
in the land service, signify my approbation 
so far as it depended upon me. But I am 
confident I could never have given you that 
Hberty, positively, because I had ever made 
it a rule to refer the applications of those 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 105 

officers in the land service, who wanted to 
take a voyage on account of their heahh, to 
Congress, — not looking upon myself author- 
ized to grant a permission to any officer 
under my command, to go without the limits 
of the United States. Indeed your proceed- 
ing to Philadelphia, after you saw me at 
Morristown, in February, 1780, and then 
making application for employ in the ma- 
rine, to the only persons who could with 
propriety grant it, seems to me a proof of 
what I have above mentioned, that you had 
my approbation conditionally only. 

I know not what difficulties you find in ob- 
taining your pay up to the time of your dis- 
charge from the service, but I do suppose they 
arise from your having taken the command 
of the private ship of war, the Washington. 
If such an objection is made, I can give no 
certificate that will invalidate it. It would 
probably operate against you, because it 
must set forth that you had only a condi- 
tional license from me for taking such a 
10 



106 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

step, and it would then be incumbent on 
you to produce the authority by which you 
took such command. 

If you found your claims to this indul- 
gence upon your merits and services, they 
are too well known and recorded, to need 
any recommendation from me. 
I am, Sir, 

Your most obedient servant, 

G. Washington. 
Colonel Talbot. 



CHAPTER VI. 

It is highly probable that the enterprise 
of Captain Talbot, like that of so many New 
Englanders, would have found scope in 
commerce, after the war, had not circum- 
stances occurred which gave rise to an 
entire change in his plans. The high con- 
sideration he enjoyed, and the eminent suc- 
cess which, as a young man, he had already 
realized, gave birth to the usual envy and 
misrepresentation that attend prosperity 
and merit. One of his prizes had been law- 
lessly taken by a Philadelphia privateer, 
carried into the Delaware, and claimed as 
an original capture. Some disaffected in- 
dividuals, at Providence, pretended to doubt 
the facts of the case, and to believe that 



108 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

Captain Talbot had possessed himself in 
some manner of the .fruits of this enterprise ; 
at their instigation, a prosecution was com- 
menced against him in behalf of a portion 
of the prize-crew. The gross injustice of 
the suspicion is not only evident from the 
high and perfectly well-known integrity of 
the individual, against whom only local jea- 
lousy could have even imagined such a 
charge, — ^but also from the fact that, at this 
very time. Captain Talbot was seeking legal 
remuneration from the privateer, in the ad- 
miralty court of Philadelphia. To this city 
he now indignantly repaired, to avoid a 
prosecution at home, and carry on his own 
suit there ; and although he numbered ar- 
dent and loyal friends among his townsmen, 
the narrow spirit of which he had been 
made the innocent victim, induced a resolu- 
tion to change his place of abode. The 
previous loss of his wife doubtless increased 
his desire to remove ; and accordingly, 
having gained his cause and received ample 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 109 

damages, paid off the malcontents in Provi- 
dence, thus triumphantly refuting their 
accusations, he sold his property there, and 
with a grand-daughter of Governor Mifflin, 
Miss Morris, of Philadelphia, then con- 
tracted a second marriage ; and, soon after, 
established himself in the western part of 
the State of New York, where, with his 
usual energy, he was soon quite absorbed 
in agricultural pursuits. He purchased the 
forfeited estate of Sir William Johnson, in 
the township which bears his name, about 
forty-six miles north-west of Albany, and 
the capital of Fulton county. This district 
he soon after represented in Congress. His 
feelings and manner of life, at this period, 
may be inferred from a letter which he ad- 
dressed to his friend Theodore Foster, of 
Rhode Island, in reply to an application for 
some details of his career, to be embodied 
in a proposed history of the war. The ori- 
ginal is among the collections of the Rhode 
Island Historical Society. This letter, the 
10* 



110 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

narrative portion of which I omit, its essen- 
tial points having been already given, is 
dated at Johnstown, May 26th, 1788 ; he 
says : — " I am settled on a good farm, and 
accompanied by an affectionate wife and 
daughter, and my young son. I am exceed- 
ingly fond of a country life ; in fact, no one 
can be more domestic than myself. The 
only difficulty is that I cannot refrain from 
working so hard, as to render my retirement 
slavish. When I am borne down by hard 
labor, I often resolve not to work so hard 
again, but it is all to no purpose ; there is 
such a demand for service to put the farm 
in good repair. 1 had letters from my two 
oldest sons two days since, dated in Decem- 
ber last. They were to sail very soon for 
St. Domingo, where they are to be stationed 
for awhile. They write me, they are much 
pleased with their situation. I must now 
apologize for not being more accurate, as I 
had much company last night, and it was 
near one before they retired. This moment 



LIFE OF TALBOT. Ill 

my swallows begin to chirp. I shall close 
by saying that no officer in the service of 
the United States served his country more 
with all his heart, with all his mind and 
strength ; and notwithstanding I am graced 
in the annals of Congress, in more special 
instances than any other officer in the 
American army, and my body remains 
loaded with lead received in action, — yet 
since the peace has taken place, not a single 
compliment has been paid me, nor any ap- 
pointment under Congress received. How 
soon mortals forget their friends! Boys, 
triflers, and even tories have been received 
into favor, while the poor soldier is forgotten 
in his decrepid state. The French nation, 
ever mindful of those that render them ser- 
vice, have not neglected to compliment me. 
In the year 1787, the Marquis de Cartous, 
Minister of Marine, wrote to the Charge 
D'Affaires, that in consequence of my par- 
ticular merit in the service of the United 
States, and in consequence of the particular 



112 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

service rendered by me to his most Christian 
Majesty's fleet, my two oldest sons may 
have the honor and advantage of an educa- 
tion in the Marine of France, and as soon 
as they are transported to any harbor in 
France, they shall be employed as volunteers 
of the second class." 

In 1794, when Congress enacted a law to 
enlarge the naval force, in order to check 
the Algerine depredations, among the six 
experienced officers selected to command 
the principal ships, was Captain Talbot. 
To his experience and zeal the country is, 
in no small degree, indebted for the excel- 
lent sailing qualities of more than one ship 
in our navy. He interested himself in the 
building of the frigate Constitution, with 
whose name the reputation of our present 
marine is so honorably identified. The ad- 
mirable skill with which the Constitution was 
managed during the memorable three days' 
chase at the opening of the war of 1812, 
when she escaped the vigilant pursuit of the 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 113 

British squadron ; her remarkable speed and 
easy management then exhibited, and her 
subsequent capture of the Guerriere, Java, 
and other prizes, as well as her efficiency in 
the Tripoli war, associated her name with 
the most brilliant episodes of our naval his- 
tory, and more than justify the eloquent 
protest of a native bard, against the design 
of breaking her up when unfit for service ; 
— a design afterwards happily abandoned 
in obedience to public sentiment : 

O better that her shattered hulk 

Should sink beneath the wave ; 
Her thunders shook the mighty deep. 

And there should be her grave ; 
Nail to the mast her holy flag, 

Set every threadbare sail, 
And give her to the God of storms, 

The lightning and the gale ! 

The Constitution was launched at Boston 
on the 20th of September, 1797 ; and it was 
while engaged in overseeing her construc- 
tion or that of the Washington, that Captain 



114 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

Talbot received the following letter from 
Mr. Monroe, recognizing his judicious zeal 
for the naval interests of his country : 

Paris, Aug. 5th, 1796. 

Sir, — I was favored some time since with 
yours, requesting me to procure for you an 
accurate statement of the length and pro- 
portion of the masts, spars, &c., of a ship, of 
a given size, in the French navy, according 
to the modern improved model of this coun- 
try ; — which I undertook to do with plea- 
sure, making application to the suitable 
authority for that purpose, the result of 
which was favorable to your views. As, 
however, this acquisition may be of general 
utility to our country, I have thought it my 
duty to make this communication through 
the department of war ; and with that view, 
the propriety whereof on my part, I presume 
you will readily perceive. Permit me fur- 
ther to assure you that, as I highly applaud 
the zeal which you show upon the present 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 115 

occasion, as well to promote the interest of 
your country as to advance your own, I 
shall, at all times, when in my power, be 
equally happy to second your views. With 
great respect and esteem, 
I am. Sir, 

Your very humble servant, 

Jas. Monroe. 

After hostilities with France had com- 
menced, one of the squadron in the West 
Indies was placed under his command ; and 
at the close of the year 1799, we find his 
broad pennant flying, on board the Consti- 
tution, at the St. Domingo station. The 
officers at this time associated with him, 
bear eloquent testimony to his dignified yet 
attractive manners in society, to his tho- 
rough discipline and great popularity. The 
late Commodore Hull was his first lieutenant 
on this cruise, and the late Commodore 
Jones, renowned for his capture of the 
Frolic, before prostrated by the infirmities 



116 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

of age, was wont to allude with enthusiasm to 
the noble qualities of his gallant commander. 
The most striking incident of this cruise is 
thus recorded by Cooper in his Naval His- 
tory : 

" Captain Talbot had been cruising for 
some months on the St. Domingo station, 
and about this time he planned an expedi- 
tion that was quite in character with his 
own personal enterprises during the war of 
the Revolution. It was ascertained that a 
valuable French letter-of-marque was lying 
in Port Platte, a small harbor on the Spanish 
side of the island of St. Domingo, and as 
she was a dangerous ship on account of her 
sailing, Commodore Talbot determined to 
attempt cutting her out. This vessel had 
been the British packet, the Sandwich, and 
she only waited to complete a cargo of cof- 
fee, to make a run for France. The legality 
of the enterprise was more than question- 
able, but the French picaroons received so 
much favor in the Spanish colonies, that 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 117 

the American officers were less scrupulous 
than they might otherwise have been. 

" As soon as it was determined to make 
the effort, Mr. Hull, the first lieutenant of 
the Constitution, went in at night, in one of 
the frigate's cutters, and reconnoitred. 
Commodore Talbot was compelled to defer 
the expedition for want of a proper craft to 
avoid suspicion, when, fortunately, she was 
found by accident. An American sloop, 
called the Sally, had been employed on the 
coast of the island, under circumstances 
that rendered her liable to detention, and 
she was brought out of one of the small 
French ports, by a boat of the frigate. This 
sloop had recently left Port Platte, with an 
intention of soon returning there ; and she 
at once afforded all the facihties that could 
be desired. 

" Commodore Talbot accordingly threw 

a party of seamen and marines into the 

Sally, and giving the command to Mr. 

Hull, that officer was directed to proceed on 

11 



118 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

the duty without further delay. The sloop 
was manned at sea, to escape detection, and 
she sailed at an hour that would enable her 
to reach Port Platte, about noon of the suc- 
ceeding day. In the course of the night, 
while running down for her port, under 
easy sail, a shot suddenly flew over the 
Sally, and soon after an English frigate 
ranged up alongside. Mr. Hull hove to, 
and when the boarding lieutenant got on 
the sloop's deck, where he found so large a 
party of men, he was both startled and sur- 
prised. He was told the object of the expe- 
dition, however, and expressed his disap- 
pointment, as his own ship was only waiting 
to let the Sandwich complete her cargo, in 
order to cut her out also. 

" The Sally's movements were so well- 
timed, as to permit her to arrive off the 
harbor's mouth at the proper hour. The 
Sandwich was lying with her broadside 
bearmg on the approach, and there was a 
battery at no great distance to protect her. 



LIFE OF TALBOT. lift 

As soon as near enough to be seen, Mr. 
Hull sent most of his people below, and 
getting an anchor ready over the stern, to 
bring the sloop up with, he stood directly 
for the enemy's bows. So admirably was 
every thing arranged, that no suspicion was 
excited, the Sally ran the Sandwich aboard^ 
the Constitution's people went into her, and 
carried her without the loss of a man. At 
the same moment Captain Cormick landed, 
with the marines, and spiked the guns. 

" Notwithstanding a great commotion on 
shore, the Americans now went to work to 
secure their prize. The Sandwich was 
stripped to a girtline, and every thing was 
below. Before sunset she had royal yards 
across, her guns scaled, her new crew quar- 
tered, and soon after she weighed, beat out 
of the harbor, and joined the frigate. No 
enterprise of the sort was ever executed 
with greater steadiness or discipline. Mr. 
Hull gained great credit for the neatness 
¥zith which he fulfilled his orders, and it 



120 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

was not possible for an officer to have been 
better sustained ; the absence of loss, in all 
cases of surprise, in which the assailed have 
the means of resistance, being one of the 
strongest proofs, not only of the gallantry 
and spirit, but of the coolness of the assail- 
ants. 

" In the end, however, this capture, which 
was clearly illegal, cost the Constitution 
dear. Not only was the Sandwich given 
up, but all the prize money of the cruise 
went to pay damages." 

Besides a spirited correspondence with 
the English Admiral Parker, on this station, 
Captain Talbot interchanged frequent let- 
ters with the renowned black chieftain, 
Touissant L'Ouverture — the governor of 
St. Domingo, whose excellent qualities he 
seems to have thoroughly appreciated. The 
union in this man, born a slave, of gratitude 
and affection towards his former master, 
and loyalty to the cause of his brethren ; his 
humane feelings, courage, and truthfulness, 



LIFE OF TALBOT; 121 

as weir as his prudence and intelligence^ 
render him the most noble specimen of his 
race, and fill every generous heart with in- 
dignation at the base deception to which he 
at last fell a victim in a foreign prison. His 
letters to Commodore Talbot are highly 
characteristic in the trust they display, the 
grateful acknowledgment of his amity, and 
a certaira quaint simplicity of expression, 
which is apparent even in the following 
literal translation of one of them^ from the 
original French: 

Liberty. Equality. 

Eighth year of the French Republic, one 
and indivisible. 

Toussaint L'Ouverture, 
General in chief of the Army of St. Domin- 
go, to Silas Talbot, Esq., Commander of the- 
United States Frigate Constitution. 

Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge 
the receipt of two letters,, which you have 
11* 



122 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

IV,, 

been so good as to write me, one under date 
of the first, and the other of the seventh of 
April inst. I shall, in the first instance, an- 
swer the first. What I have said of the 
services rendered to me by the frigate Gen- 
eral Greene, during the siege of Jaquemel, i§ 
very sincere, and it is again agreeable to 
me to repeat it. I pay with thankfulness 
as well you, sir, as Captain Perry. Your 
good intentions for the prosperity of this co- 
lony and that of your government, loads me 
with satisfaction. I beg of you to continue 
them, and to be convinced of my zeal in 
keeping the harmony which so happily ex- 
ists between the two nations. I should 
have been desirous that the Adjutant-general 
D'Hebecourt should not have come away 
so soon, and that he might have seen you, 
and conversed a moment with you ; but 
having seen the Consul-general, Stevens, the 
object of his mission was in the same way 
fulfilled. I should have seen you with .plea- 
sure cruising with the Constitution on the 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 123 

station of the south ; since you have reasons 
of such a nature as to prevent you coming 
that way, I depend upon your promise that 
you vv^ill consult the Consul-general, Stevens, 
in order that means may be taken to get 
succor to our army. On my part, I will 
communicate to him my plan on the sub- 
ject, and point him out my want. Your 
prudence and loyalty will crown the under- 
taking. 

You write me, sir, that you will render 
me all the service in your power. I feel all 
the value of your generous offers, on which 
I have founded all my hopes. At this mo- 
ment the army of Jaquemel is in motion, and 
surely it is in want. I am going to write to 
Mr. Stevens, who no doubt will communi- 
cate to you my letter and what I want. I 
can but invite to continue your good offers. 

I will pass over, sir, to your letter of the 
7th of April. . You inform me, and I learn 
it with joy, that you have given orders to 
the ship Herald, of twenty guns, to join the 



124 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

brig Augusta and the schooner Experiment. 
I am infinitely obliged for so much honora- 
ble proceeding from you, and 1 shall never 
forget it. 

Lieutenant Russell may be assured, al- 
though I may not be present, he will obtain 
from the general and commandant what 
he may ask, either coasting pilots or any 
thing else. I have already given orders in 
consequence of it. You flatter me with the 
hope that you are going shortly to send the 
Boston frigate of thirty- two guns ; may you 
soon be able to realize it : God grant, like- 
vnse, to favor my expectation. It remains, 
sir, to beg of you to recommend to the cap- 
tains of vessels of your nation, that are 
going to cruise on the south side, to let pass 
freely the French vessels that have a pass- 
port signed by the Consul-general, Stevens, 
or by me ; and that until we have taken 
such new measures with the President of 
the United States, on my part I have al- 
ready given the most strict orders, that the 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 125 

most perfect understanding and intelligence 
may exist amongst all the cruising vessels, 
both schooners and barges. Good harmony- 
is necessary, and I flatter myself that our 
efforts shall be mutual in the maintenance 
of it. I am penetrated, sir, with the affec- 
tion and esteem that your good and gene- 
rous conduct has inspired me towards you, 
and beg you to believe me, with the utmost 
consideration, 

Your very obd't servant, 

TOUISSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 



CHAPTER VII. 

In his retirement after the revolutionary 
war, we have seen that Commodore Talbot 
sensibly felt the comparative neglect which 
so quickly succeeded his renown. A simi- 
lar experience has been the lot of many 
illustrious Americans ; and is often adduced 
as a new evidence of the proverbial ingra- 
titude of republics. Indeed, it is only 
within a few years that any zeal has been 
manifested to render, at least, historical jus- 
tice to the benefactors of our country. It 
is true that a pension of three or four hun- 
dred dollars per annum was awarded Cap- 
tain Talbot by Congress, and that he is said 
to have received the gift of a sword from. 



LIFE GF TALBOT. 127 

the French government : but it was not so 
much empty honor as cordial recognition, 
and the opportunity still farther to devote 
his yet unimpaired energies to high public 
service, that he so earnestly and naturally 
desired. A new cause of displeasure was 
now added to this general ground of com- 
plaint, by a very distasteful proceeding on 
the part of the Secretary of the Navy, to 
which we must recur. 

A question arose as to the comparative 
rank of Commodores Talbot and Truxton, 
in which the Secretary of the JNavy gave 
precedence to the latter, much to the for- 
mer's dissatisfaction. How readily he sa- 
crificed personal views and interest to his 
country we have already seen ; but his pride 
was no less intense than his patriotism, and 
while he cheerfully adapted himself to duty 
as an American officer, he was inflexible, 
on all occasions, in the maintenance of his 
rights as a man. It is not, therefore, sur- 
prising, that the injustice of the decision 



128 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

referred to, should have confirmed his reso- 
lution to retire from a service to v^^hich his 
best years had been devoted, and enjoy the 
fairly-earned repose of honorable age. The 
following correspondence illustrates both 
the question at issue, and the spirit in which 
it was argued • 

QuiNCY, July 8, 1799. 

Sir, — I have this moment received your 
favor of this day's date, by Mr. Tarbeli, and 
had before received your note. 

I can give no answer to any of your pro- 
positions, nor determine any thing concern- 
ing officers or men, until I know who is to 
command the Constitution. Your refusal 
to accept the commission has ruined all my 
designs. It was altogether unexpected to 
me. I know not the facts at present, with 
precision enough to decide between your 
pretensions and those of Captain Truxton. 
If I must appoint Captain Little, I must ap- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 129 

point all his officers, or at least consult him 
which of them to take with him, and which 
to remove from the Constitution. If I 
should appoint Lever, I must do the same. 
I know of no other captains at hand. In 
short, I see no possibility of getting the Con- 
stitution to sea, unless you go in her, under 
a fortnight or three weeks, if so soon. If 
she must remain in harbor so long, it will be 
better to send the Boston to sea^ and com- 
plete her crew out of the Constitution. But 
in this case I cannot appoint Little to the 
command of the Constitution. It will be 
impossible for me to arrange any thing 
without a personal conference with you. 
If you would accept the commission, altered 
so as to leave the question of rank unde- 
cided, to be determined hereafter by a 
council of officers, this shall be done. As- 
surances have been given you, as I under- 
stand, by Mr. Stoddart, that you should not 
be ordered to serve with Truxton, without 

12 



130 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

absolute necessity. These assurances I am 
willing to confirm. 

I am, however, fully of opinion that I 
must see you before I can do any thing. If 
you cannot come here, I will meet you any 
where ; but it will take time and trouble to 
concert time and place ; so that I believe 
you had better come here, if you can, to- 
morrow morning, as early as possible, or 
next day, or leave it till Thursday. 

I have this day forwarded to Captain Lit- 
tle his sailing orders, received only this 
morning from the Secretary of the Navy. 
If he is completely ready in all other res- 
pects, I am willing to fill up his complement 
for the Constitution. But the service on 
which the Constitution is ordered is at least 
as pressing, and perhaps more so, than the 
other. I have the honor to be with great 
esteem, 

Your humble servant, 

John Adams. 
Captain Talbot. 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 131 

On Board the Frigate Constitution, 
9th July, 1799. 
Sir, — The foregoing sheets contain exact 
copies, as I believe, of my commission in 
the navy of the last war, an official notice 
of my appointment under the present form 
of government, the letter announcing the 
suspension of my pay as Captain, and some 
correspondence between the honorable the 
Secretary of the Navy and myself on that 
subject, in which I gave him to understand 
that neither my honor nor reputation would 
permit me to be commanded by Captain 
Truxton, because he was, in fact, a junior 
officer. I, at the same time, told him that I 
had no desire to give him, or the President, 
or any Captain in the Navy, the least unea- 
siness ; and that he had my consent to 
strike my name from the list of appoint- 
ments, if it should be found necessary or 
convenient. I must now observe to your 
Excellency, that, notwithstanding I have 
the command of so fine a ship as the Consti- 



132 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

tion, I will freely relinquish my present sta- 
tion, and retire to private life. If there is a 
desire, from political or any other motives 
whatever, to place Captain Truxton over 
me, I shall be silent on the occasion ; but, at 
the same time, I cannot sacrifice the little 
reputation I have in the world as an officer, 
by accepting a commission that would ine- 
vitably compel me to yield that grade or 
relative rank, which no officer can do, and 
preserve his honor in or out of service. I 
am free to grant that Captain Truxton has 
much merit, and trust I have some small 
share also ; he has bravely engaged and cap- 
tured an enemy's frigate of nearly his own 
force, and this was certainly a brilliant ac- 
tion, for which he justly deserves and has 
received great praise. I have done some 
things that were, perhaps, thought at the 
time equally clever, and if the rules of deli- 
cacy would allow a detail of them, they 
might be easily brought to view, and I 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 133 

should glory in the comparison. I have the 
honor to be, 

Your obedient servant, 

Silas Talbot. 
To the President of the United States. 

The unpleasant feelings growing out of 
this question were increased on the reduc- 
tion of the navy by Congress, in 1801, 
which, in his case, as in that of so many 
gallant men, alienated sympathy from a 
service before so endeared. Even those 
friendly to this proceeding, acknowledged 
that the President's task was most painful 
and delicate, in discharging unceremoniously 
so many able officers, and disposing, by sale, 
of the best means of our maritime defence. 
The actual expense of the treaty with 
France, it is asserted, would not have been 
exceeded by that attending the equipment 
and maintenance of the marine force, neces- 
sary to have obliged that nation to make the 
desired concessions. A false economy and 
12* 



134 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

narrow views doubtless induced much of 
the opposition then engendered against the 
naval interests of the country. They 
should have been considered irrespective of 
political opinions, and with reference to the 
great laws of national welfare and honor. 
Commodore Talbot, who, through life, had 
cherished the most intelligent attachment to 
this branch of public service, not only re- 
signed his own commission, but withdrew 
his sons from a career for which they had 
been admirably educated. He purchased 
lands for them in Kentucky; and one of 
the chief pleasures of his latter years was an 
annual visit to that growing State, to enjoy 
their society. The date of his own resigna- 
tion is Sept. 23d, 1801. The close of his 
adventurous life was passed in the city of 
New York, where he built a commodious 
residence, and married, for his third wife, 
Mrs. Pintard, from whom, however, he was 
separated before his death. 
In person, Commodore Talbot was tall and 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 185 

graceful, in features determined, but attract- 
ive. His conversation was spirited and genial. 
A few of the " troops of friends" that enjoyed 
his intimacy, yet recall the mingled hardi- 
hood and fascination of his appearance ; and 
their remembrance is confirmed by the por- 
trait belonging to his descendants in Ken- 
tucky, and painted by Benjamin West, in 
liquidation of a debt incurred in the artist's 
days' of privation ; and, therefore, an inte- 
resting as well as an authentic memorial. 
His wheat-fields at Johnstown were cele- 
brated for their richness and extent ; and 
the same energy displayed in battle and 
agriculture, he seems to have carried into 
social life, which was the chief resource of 
his declining years. 

The natural heroism of Commodore Tal- 
bot is sufficiently illustrated by his revolu- 
tionary career, while attached to the army 
and navy. His social character was distin- 
guished by a remarkable candor, a high and 
quick sense of honor, and a rare union of 



136 LIFE OF TALBOT. 

clear judgment with strong feeling. Al- 
though impulsive by temperament, his will 
was firm and consistent. With very re- 
stricted early advantages, he educated him- 
self through the judicious culture and noble 
direction of the gifts he had received from 
nature, and the habit of improving every 
occasion that presented itself to enlarge his 
knowledge. He was an accomplished 
gentleman, with a dignity of manners 
that stamped him for a leader; and yet 
with a frank urbanity of spirit that endeared 
him as a companion. He was thirteen 
times wounded, and carriAi five bullets in 
his body. In private life, the elegant hos- 
pitality he exercised, the ardor of his per- 
sonal attachments, the winning grace and 
self-respect of his manners, his acquaintance 
with life in all its phases, and a certain ge- 
nerous nobility of feeling, rendered him, in 
his prime, one of the best specimens of a 
self-made American officer the country has 
produced. He died in the city of New- 



LIFE OF TALBOT. 137 

York, on the 30th of June, 1813, and was 
buried under Trinity Church. No monu- 
ment has been erected to his memory ; but 
his gallant deeds are inscribed on the im- 
mortal record of the war of Independence ', 
and his name enrolled among the patriot- 
heroes of America. 



THE END. 



J, C. RIKER 

has recently published a new Edition of 

THE ITALIAN SKETCH BOOK, 

By H. T. Tuckerbian. 



Opinions of the Press. 

Tuckerman's Italian Sketch Book has been pub- 
lished in a third edition, revised and enlarged, by J. C. 
Riker, of this city. It is a pleasant book, giving the remi- 
niscences of a two years' residence in the beautiful penin- 
sula, which, to its other many ancient and modern titles to 
historical pre-eminence, has now added that of being the 
spot where the torch of liberty has been lately kindled, 
which, passed from hand to hand, is hghting up all Europe. 
— N. Y. Evening Post. 

The Italian Sketch Book, by Tuckerman, of which 
a new and considerably enlarged edition has just been 
issued by Riker, at 129 Fulton street, has a timely interest 
and value which cannot fail to give* it a very wide circula- 
tion. Apart from the interest which scholars and culti- 
vated men must always feel in every thing relating to Italy, 
recent events in tlfat part of Europe have greatly increased 
the public desire to become acquainted with the character 
of society, and of the civil, social, and political institutions 
in that country. 

We commend the book to universal favor, as one cer- 
tain richly to repay perusal. — N. Y. Courier ^ Enquirer. 

This is a new edition of a beautiful and popular work, 
written with all the author's grace and richness of style 
and clearness of thought and description. Among the 
additions are an " Essay on Modern Italy," " The Canta- 



frice,'^ " A Reminiscence of Shelley," two ot three transla- 
tions, and a couple of humorous sketches, entitled " Kitty 
Mayo" and " Speculation." The interest, at present, in 
•all which relates to Italy, will probably give an impetus 
to the success of the book, apart from its merits of compo- 
sition and reflection. The author has resided in Italy, is 
familiar with her people and literature, and understands 
both the obstacles and the aids to her prosperity and pro- 
gress. Too many of the books on the subject are flimsy 
and superficial, embodying the mere guesses and imper- 
tinences of hasty tourists, and in their dogmatic tone of 
judgment evincing the very " effrontery of incapacity." 
Mr. Tuckerman gives calm, well-considered opinions, 
based on positive knowledge. His work, in its present 
form, will tend to dissipate many erroneous impressions 
regarding the Italian character. — Boston Courier. 

Mr. Tuckerman has attained a high reputation as an 
essayist, by his " Thoughts on the Poets," and " Artist 
Life ;" and those who have been delighted with his vivid 
and graceful style in those works, will welcome the publi- 
cation of a new edition of the Italian Sketch Book, which 
is one of his earliest and most popular efforts. We have 
here the fruits of a residence in Italy, given in care- 
fully-finished sketches of art, scenery, and society, and 
which, without following the beaten track of a connected 
narrative, offer quite as much variety and interest to the 
general reader. The chapters devoted to recollections of 
distinguished persons are especially readable. The " Remi- 
niscence of Shelley" gives one a better idea of the man as 
well as the poet, than any other description we have ever 
read, and his account of an interview with Silvio Pellico, 
cannot fail to enlist the strongest sympathies of those who 
have read his noble and touching narrative of suffering. 
Among the other sketches which have much interested 
us, are those on " Florence Revisited," " Rome," " Italian 
Journeying," and "American Sculptors." The accuracy 
and vividness of Mr. Tuckerman's word-paintings are best 
appreciated by those who have looked upon the scenes he 
describes, but their poetic beauty commends them equally 
to the perusdjyfjryi. — N. IT ^^buned iS^ 











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